Chapter 13
Food

You probably agree that even in the best of times you need food to survive and be healthy. Adrenal fatigue is definitely not the best of times and so the food choices you make become even more important to your survival and health. The old computer saying, “garbage in = garbage out” applies here as well; if you make inadequate food choices (garbage in), your body will make inadequate responses (garbage out) to the demands placed on it (stress). When your adrenals respond to stress the metabolism of your cells speeds up, burning many times the number of nutrients normally needed. By the time you are in a state of adrenal fatigue, your cells have used up much of your body’s stored nutrients and are in desperate need of new supplies just to continue to function, let alone heal. Good quality food is the best source of these nutrients; there is no substitute. The nutritional supplements described in Chapter 15 can increase your ability to heal and speed your recovery, but without a foundation of nutritious food intake, you will not make much progress.

“We cannot over emphasize the importance of a proper diet” Dr. John Tintera – The Hypoadrenia Cortical State and its Management. New York State Journal of Medicine, Vol. 55 #13, July 1, 1955, p.11.

It is crucial for you to read this chapter so you will understand which foods help your healing process and which foods are detrimental. If you think you already know a lot about food and nutrition, I still ask you to read this chapter because anyone with adrenal fatigue syndrome is missing something in their food intake. They are lacking the essential nutrients they need to meet the increased demands their cells experience under stress. In many cases of adrenal fatigue, poor diet is one of its main causes but in all cases of recovery from adrenal fatigue, a nutritious diet is a major factor.

The Connection between Adrenal Fatigue and Low Blood Sugar

The adrenal hormone cortisol helps keep blood sugar at adequate levels to meet your body’s demands for energy. However, when your adrenal glands are fatigued, cortisol levels drop lower than normal. This makes it more difficult for your body to maintain normal blood sugar levels. As a result, people with adrenal fatigue (hypoadrenia) tend to also have low blood sugar (hypoglycemia).

If you have adrenal fatigue, when you eat is almost as important as what you eat. Low blood sugar is in itself a stressful situation that further drains your adrenals. Therefore avoiding letting your blood sugar levels drop too low by eating natural, high quality food at frequent, regular intervals will make a difference to your adrenal health as well as to your energy level. Many people suffering from mild hypoadrenia push themselves, often going for long stretches without a proper meal. This further taxes the adrenals because the lower the blood sugar levels, the more cortisol it takes to normalize them. If you have adrenal fatigue you should not follow the eating pattern that some popular books present as the perfect adrenal diet. This supposed ‘adrenal diet’ consists of yogurt for breakfast; fruit, a green salad and a slice of whole grain toast four hours later, for lunch; and a light supper, six hours after that. This eating pattern is appropriate only for the person with very strong or over-functioning adrenals. The lack of adequate protein, essential fatty acids, and good quality carbohydrates, as well as the long time between meals in this program, will worsen the symptoms of adrenal fatigue.

People suffering from adrenal fatigue who were used to having lots of energy before they became hypoadrenic tend to choose foods and drinks that energize them at the expense of the adrenal glands, such as coffee, colas and fast foods. They soon learn that fats provide more sustained energy than sweets, so they drive themselves with high-fat fast foods. The problem is that the fat found in processed and fast foods is the wrong kind of fat, the carbohydrates are the wrong kind of carbohydrates because they are refined and have little or no food value, the protein is of inferior quality, and the meals generally offer very little actual nutrition. The caffeine in the coffee and colas temporarily drives the adrenal glands, which further depletes adrenal reserves and causes a roller coaster blood sugar effect. At the end of a day of this, these people often feel pretty wrecked. Add those days up into years and you get the idea. As they continually kick their adrenals with over consumption of fast food and caffeine and deprive their bodies of certain restorative nutrients, their adrenal glands become more and more fatigued and difficult to stimulate*.

Weight Gain and Cortisol Levels

As if this is not bad enough already, people in this predicament usually overeat in their attempt to bolster their lagging energy and then end up gaining weight. The temporary increase in cortisol levels produced by driving the adrenals with too much fast food and caffeine causes people with chronically low cortisol to put on weight because even a temporary excess of cortisol causes fat to be deposited around the middle (the spare tire or swallowed-a-beach-ball look). The added weight adds to their lethargy, making them eat more and more of the wrong food to get through the day. If only they knew when and how to eat, they would be able to keep their energy steady without resorting to this destructive pattern. The solution to this vicious cycle is covered in the sections below.

When to Eat

One of the major dietary mistakes made by people with low adrenal output is not eating soon enough after waking. It is extremely important if you have hypoadrenia that you eat before 10:00 AM. You need to replenish your waning glycogen (stored blood sugar) supply after the previous night’s energy requirements. Even a small, nutritious snack is better than having nothing at all. However there are two factors that tend to diminish your appetite during the early morning hours. Between 6:00 and 8:00 AM, cortisol levels typically rise rapidly, peaking at around 8:00 AM, and while your cortisol levels are higher, you may not feel like eating. In addition, the low liver function that often accompanies low adrenal function also suppresses early morning hunger. If your liver is very congested, you may sometimes even feel an aversion to food in the morning. Nevertheless, this does not change your need for energy intake and so you must eat some nutritious food before 10:00 AM to keep your body from having to play catch-up during the rest of the day. See the section on “What to Eat” for some suggestions about ways around this.

An early lunch, before noon, is also better than a later lunch because your body quickly uses up the morning nourishment and needs the next installment; 11:00 – 11:30 is usually the best time for lunch. You should also eat a nutritious snack sometime between 2:00 and 3:00 PM to sustain you through the dip in cortisol levels that typically occurs between 3:00 and 4:00 PM in most hypoadrenics. When cortisol levels drop, you do not as readily manufacture or mobilize stored energy from proteins and fats as you do when your cortisol levels are normal. Therefore, taking in food between 2:00 and 3:00 PM allows you to coast through this low energy time much more smoothly. Your evening meal should be eaten around 5:00 or 6:00 PM. If you are like most people suffering from adrenal fatigue, you will feel your best after your evening meal. If you do not feel your best after the evening meal, you may be eating the wrong foods for supper.

Later in the evening, before bed, just a couple of bites of a high quality snack is often the key to successfully getting through the night without panic attacks, sleep disturbances, anxiety reactions, or feeling wrecked in the morning. The section on what to eat or drink will give you guidelines about these snacks.

If you feel too hungry or if you feel the symptoms of hypoglycemia creeping up on you during the day, then you have waited too long to eat and you should eat something nutritious (not sweet) right away. However, it is much less taxing on your body to eat before you get to the point of being over-hungry or have signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia, especially when your adrenals are weak. The quantity can be small as long as the food provides good quality protein, fat and complex carbohydrates. Make as many refueling stops as you need on your daily flight. Remember that a good fuel supply keeps you from crashing.

What to Eat and Drink

Energy From Food: If you suffer from adrenal fatigue you will do best combining fat, protein and starchy carbohydrates (such as whole grains) at every meal and at every snack. Your body converts fats, proteins, and starch or carbohydrates into a blood sugar called glucose. Despite the fact that your body uses glucose for fuel, eating sugar or sugary foods and fruit juices is hard on your body. It makes blood sugar rise too high, too fast, and subsequently fall too low, leaving your body starving for fuel again. You can read more about this in the chapter on anatomy and physiology, but for now, remember that foods that are converted too quickly into energy will quickly let you down. Fats, proteins, and starchy carbohydrates eaten together provide a steady source of energy over a longer period of time because they are converted into glucose at different rates. The starchy carbohydrates are converted fairly quickly, the protein takes longer and the fats take the longest to be converted into energy. Combining these three as energy sources puts less strain on every part of your body, including your adrenals.

To Salt or Not to Salt – There is No Question: Salt craving is a common symptom in all stages of adrenal fatigue. The physiological reasons for this are explained in Chapter 22 on physiology and anatomy. But suffice it to say that this is your body’s way of crying out for something that it needs. Our salt-phobic society has deprived millions of people struggling with adrenal fatigue of something that would decrease their symptoms and speed their recovery. They have taught their bodies to ignore the urge for salt because it is politically incorrect to salt food. Most of this fear of salt is due to the myth that it causes high blood pressure.

However, the majority of people with adrenal fatigue have low blood pressure, not high. For over seventy years it has been known that people with Addison’s disease benefit from the addition of sodium (salt) to their diet. In fact, Loeb, a prominent physician and researcher, was even able to maintain Addison’s patients (before the advent of corticosteroids) by the use of large quantities of sodium in their diet. Salt is a welcome addition to the diet in adrenal fatigue because it not only helps increase blood pressure, but also helps restore some of the other functions related to sodium loss within the cells. So if you have cravings for salt, get out the saltshaker and use it.

If you are concerned about your blood pressure, simply buy a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure cuff) from a drugstore, the internet or medical supply store, and monitor your blood pressure yourself. Although it is true that a small percentage of people are sensitive to sodium and develop high blood pressure as a result of its intake, the majority of people with normal blood pressure do not experience a rise in blood pressure with moderate salt intake. Those with low blood pressure may experience a temporary increase toward normal when they add sodium to their diet. However this does not lead to high blood pressure. If your blood pressure rises to over 140/90, then cut back on salt.

In most cases of adrenal fatigue, salt intake benefits those who add it to their diet. So unless you are one of the rare people with adrenal fatigue and high blood pressure, salt your food. In fact, some of the symptoms of adrenal fatigue are caused by your body’s needs for salt.

Sea salt is a good source of salt. It contains more trace minerals than regular table salt but note that it often does not contain iodine. Some of the most nutrient rich sources of salt are kelp and a preparation of salt and sesame seeds called gomasio. To improve the nutrient content of sea salt it is a good idea to mix it half-and-half with kelp. This combination will be especially beneficial for those suffering from severe adrenal fatigue.

This does not mean that excessive salt intake is good for the person not suffering from adrenal fatigue. Excessive salt can be detrimental, especially when combined with a diet high in refined carbohydrates and fat or for the person with mildly elevated adrenal function. As your adrenal glands get stronger, you will usually lose your taste for salt. If you are concerned that you are taking in too much salt, decrease the amount and watch yourself closely. If your symptoms increase or you do not feel as good, then you probably still need a little extra help from salt.

Conversely, foods high in potassium such as fruit (especially bananas and dried figs) make adrenal fatigue worse. This is another reason you should avoid fruit and fruit juices in the morning. Not only do they contain a significant amount of fructose (fruit sugar), they also contain high amounts of potassium. This results in a dangerous duo for people with hypoadrenia. A nice “healthy” fruit and yogurt breakfast will put a lot of hypoadrenic people on the floor. In fact, one sign of hypoadrenia is increased fatigue or shakiness after a high fruit breakfast.

Nutrients From Food

As mentioned above, what you eat is a fundamental aspect of your adrenal recovery program. For this reason it is important for you to understand the different components of foods and how they affect your adrenal health.

Scientists divide food into the components of energy, nutrients, and fiber. The energy portion provides fuel that is converted by your body into energy (usually glucose) and includes fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Nutrients are the vitamins, minerals and other substances in food that nourish your body. Fiber, the indigestible plant cell wall portion of food, also serves important functions in keeping your body healthy. The following sections describe how various foods and nutrients affect adrenal health.

Proteins

Good quality protein available from meat, fish, fowl, eggs, dairy and various plant sources is essential to adrenal recovery. Avoid processed proteins such as lunchmeats, processed cheese and TVP (texturized vegetable protein). Proteins have more food value and are easier to digest when eaten lightly cooked or raw. The amino acids are delivered intact (and therefore more usable) in uncooked or lightly cooked food rather than in the denatured (irreversibly changed) form produced by high heat or long cooking. However, it is always necessary to fully cook poultry and pork to avoid potential microbial danger and to make sure that raw fish, shellfish and beef are free from contamination. If you can be sure of the safety of the source, then sushi, sashimi and ceviche are excellent sources of protein, as is steak tartare and similar preparations from fresh organically raised beef. Raw or lightly cooked eggs and goat milk or goat cheese also provide protein that is exceptionally easy for your body to assimilate.

Many people with adrenal fatigue also have lowered levels of the hydrochloric acid (HCL) necessary to properly break down protein foods in the stomach. If you have this problem you may experience gas, bloating and heaviness in your stomach after eating a meal containing protein foods. Because of these unpleasant after effects, people with low hydrochloric acid often choose to eat less protein and more carbohydrate foods. This only compounds the problem, by aggravating adrenal fatigue with too much carbohydrate and too little protein consumption. The solution is to take a digestive aid with meals that provides supplementary HCL along with other factors such as pepsin, trypsin, papain and/or digestive enzymes that help your body to properly break down protein.

Proteins from vegetable sources are also fine if they are combined correctly to provide all the amino acids you need. Legumes (beans) must be eaten with whole grains, seeds or nuts to make a complete protein. However, it is my experience that vegetarians suffering moderate to severe adrenal fatigue have tremendous difficulty recovering on a strictly vegan (no foods from animal sources) diet. If you are a vegetarian and you have adrenal fatigue, you will do much better if you modify your diet to include eggs, miso (Japanese bean pasta), sea vegetables, yogurt, as well as combining your grains with beans, seeds and nuts at every meal.

Dairy foods (milk, cheese, yogurt, kefir) are excellent sources of protein for some, but many people are unable to digest certain fractions of dairy food either because of an allergy to milk protein (casein) or an absence of the enzyme needed to break down milk sugar (lactose). If you know that you are sensitive to dairy foods, then of course do not include them as a source of protein. If you are not certain, refer to the chapter titled “Food Allergies and Sensitivities.” to find out how to determine if you are sensitive to dairy or other foods.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are prevalent in a very broad class of foods that includes grains, vegetables and fruits, but not all carbohydrates are alike. A simple way to divide carbohydrates into three useful categories is as 1) sweet or sugary, 2) starchy, and 3) non-starchy. These categories generally correspond to fruits, grains, and vegetables, respectively.

The sweet or sugary carbohydrates predominate in foods that taste sweet (honey, sugar, syrups, dried or fresh fruits, fruit juices, milk, soft drinks, desserts such as pies, cakes, pastries, and anything that is made with sugar). They provide a quick source of energy that at first rapidly drives the blood sugar up only to let it drop to a low about an hour later. These foods are the most detrimental early in the day. After coffee and a doughnut for breakfast you may feel great for a while, but it may take you the rest of the day to recover from the inevitable low that follows. A whole day of skimpy eating spiked with sugary snacks can leave you feeling exhausted and even hung-over the next morning. The “roller coaster” energy this kind of food provides is especially detrimental for people with low adrenal function. You will therefore do better to greatly limit sweet and sugary foods. The best choices in this category are fruits and fruit drinks sprinkled with some salt. Avoid the white flour and sugar combinations such as pies, cakes, cookies, doughnuts, etc. If you do eat any of these fast energy foods, do not have them by themselves but rather combine them with protein and fats.

Starchy carbohydrates are found mainly in grains and certain root vegetables. The grains can be divided into two subgroups: refined and unrefined, which reflect the amount of processing they have been subjected to. Unrefined grains (whole grains) are minimally processed and still contain their nutrient portions as well as their starchy portion. Your body metabolizes energy from them more slowly, which means that you get more sustained energy as well as nutrients from them. They are also rich sources of the vitamins and minerals needed to metabolize them into energy. Good sources of unrefined carbohydrates are brown rice, whole wheat, buckwheat, unpearled barley, whole oats, unhulled millet, quinoa, and amaranth. Cook and eat them pretty much the way they come from nature, simply washed and steamed in a covered pot with a little salt and the appropriate amount of water (usually twice as much water as grain). Whole grains take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to cook, depending on the grain. One note of caution – most people with adrenal fatigue do not do well having cereal grains (even those made from whole grains) in the morning. Check your own reactions, but be careful of grains and breakfast cereals as your first food of the day. An occasional bowl of oatmeal (not instant) seems to be all right.

In contrast, refined grains (refined carbohydrates) have had everything removed in the refining process but the white, starchy portion on the inside of the grain. The nutrients (vitamins and minerals) necessary to metabolize the energy (inner starchy) portion are contained in the outer portion of the grain that is milled away when the grain is refined. Since the nutrient portion of the grain is now missing, your body has to either rob nutrients from itself or get them from a different food source in order to metabolize energy from the refined grain. Over time this leads to the nutritional bankruptcy we experience as poor health, sickness, chronic illnesses, and many subtle deteriorations in health (garbage out).

Unfortunately, many of the favorite menu items of our culture such as pasta, white rice, bread, pastry, and all baked goods made from white flour are made from these refined grains. A similar problem occurs with sugar cane, beets and corn when they are refined into sugar or corn syrup. Approximately three feet of sugar cane makes one tablespoon of white sugar. That means that three feet of nutrients and fiber are lost to produce one tablespoon of naked calories. Continually consuming these naked (energy without nutrients) calories leads to nutrient deficiencies. Nutrient deficiencies lead to impaired physiological function. Impaired physiological function leads to the structural and pathological changes we know as chronic illnesses. Because the purpose of food consumption is to provide your body with the energy AND the nutrients you need, avoid foods that are energy only (i.e. sweets, white flour products, and refined naked calories). Make them an occasional exception rather than the daily rule. Use the Dietary Wheel given later in this chapter to help you plan and eat your way to health.

Choose whole foods over refined foods. But if you are going to choose refined foods, choose pasta over white sugar products. Pastas sustain blood sugar for about three times as long as white sugar products. Both, however, cause a net loss of nutrients since they both have had the vitamins, fiber, minerals and other food values stripped from them in processing. This net loss negatively affects your health with time. If these foods compose a significant part of your diet, you will end up with one form or another of nutritional bankruptcy.

The Glycemic Index

The glycemic index has been brought to the public’s attention through the recent popularity of low carbohydrate diets. It assigns a value to how much each food raises blood sugar and was originally intended for use by diabetics. This index only considers the extent to which a food elevates your blood sugar and is not concerned with a food’s nutrient value, or the sustainability of the energy a food provides.

For this reason the glycemic index should not be used as the sole guide for making food choices. A good example of the misconceptions that arise when food value is based only on glycemic value appeared in a recent brochure from a diabetic association. It showed a chocolate brownie on one side of the brochure and a potato on the other and asked, “Which raises your blood sugar more?” The answer, that both raise it the same, is essentially true (actually the potato raises your blood sugar slightly more than a brownie). However their inference that eating brownies is okay because it has the same effect as eating potatoes is quite false. Although both of these foods should be used with caution by people who have blood sugar problems, each of them is metabolized differently. The potato has many nutrients in its skin (which should always be eaten with the potato), whereas the brownie is composed mainly of white flour and sugar that robs your body of nutrients while it is being metabolized into blood glucose. Use the glycemic index chart to help maintain steady blood sugar levels, but recognize that it does not provide information about nutrients contained in the food, nor the sustainable energy of a food. Always pick whole foods when you have a choice. A copy of the glycemic index is included in Appendix A and on the website.

Vegetables

Every day you should include 6-8 servings of a wide variety of vegetables in your meals, especially the vegetables that are naturally highly colored (bright green, red, orange, yellow, purple). In addition to carbohydrates and proteins, vegetables provide vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and a high amount of fiber. They also provide important constituents such as proanthrocyanadins, anthrocyanadins and other elements essential for health but not considered in the typical energy or nutrient categories. Make sure you have at least three highly colored vegetables with each of your noon and evening meals. You will not gain weight with these vegetables but, by including them, you will give your body many of the factors it needs to improve your overall health with time.

Vegetables can be steamed, sautéed, stir-fried, deep-fried, baked, boiled, grilled, blanched or eaten raw. It is actually better to use a variety of techniques to prepare vegetables because different nutrients are made available through different cooking methods. For example, nutrients like vitamin C and folic acid are vulnerable to heat and do not survive cooking. However, other vitamins such as the carotenoids (vitamin A related substances) and some of the minerals become more available if the vegetables are cooked before being eaten. Therefore, if you combine a variety of preparation techniques with a wide variety of vegetables, you will increase your chances of getting the most complete range of available nutrients from the vegetables.

One class of vegetables eaten by most coastal cultures is seaweed. There are many kinds, but nearly all are rich in trace minerals, good quality vegetable protein, and are easily digested. Most oriental stores and some health food stores carry a variety of these nutritious foods and can tell you how to prepare them. Seaweeds are some of the most nutritious vegetables you can eat.

Sprouts are another source of exceptionally high quality concentrated nutrients. Almost any bean or seed can be sprouted. Sprouts are easy to grow, inexpensive and contain nutrients often deficient or missing in diets. They can be used in salads, soups, vegetable dishes, and eaten with any vegetable, grain or meat. Any person in a health food store or co-op should be able to tell you how to grow sprouts. If not, there are several books and booklets available that contain simple instructions. Ouncefor-ounce, sprouts rank at the top as a source of nutrients. People who have an abundance of sea vegetables and sprouts in their diet usually enjoy good health. Note: Obtain your seeds for sprouting from a health food store or other food outlet. Seeds sold to be planted often contain pesticides and other chemicals that can be harmful if swallowed. Check with a knowledgeable person in the store if you have any doubts about whether the seeds can be used for sprouting.

A list of vegetables is located in Appendix B. Use this list to widen your usual choice and find new and interesting flavors.

Vegetables high in sodium and thus helpful in supporting adrenal recovery include the following (given in descending order of sodium content):

Highest sodium content
Kelp
Green Olives
Dulse
Ripe (black) olives

High sodium content
Hot red peppers
New Zealand spinach
Swiss chard
Beet greens
Celery (leaves and root)
Zucchini

A vegetable soup recipe that has proved helpful in restoring adrenal function during the active, chronic, and recovery phases of infectious disease is given below. This high-energy soup called “Taz” comes from Dolores S. Downey’s “Balancing body chemistry with nutrition seminars,” Cannonburg, MI 49317, page 158.

Adrenal Recovery Soup

16oz. green beans
1 cup chopped celery
1 zucchini, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup tomato juice
1 cup spring water
2 tbsp. raw honey
1 tsp. Paprika
1 cup chicken broth
pepper to taste
Combine ingredients and simmer for one hour until vegetables are tender.

Fruit

People with adrenal fatigue and blood sugar problems should go lightly on fruits, especially in the morning. But if you exercise early in the day, it may be possible for you to handle a small amount of fruit for breakfast. Exercise elevates cortisol and aldosterone levels, which in turn raise sodium levels in your blood, allowing for greater tolerance to the effects of fruit. However, be very careful of fruit consumption and if you notice that you become more tired, thick headed or start to experience other symptoms of either low blood sugar or low adrenals, then eliminate fruit in the morning.

Any fruit that you do eat should be organically grown. Many people who suffer from adrenal fatigue are sensitive to chemicals in foods. Several sprays are used on commercially grown fruits and, although they are considered safe by government standards, they still adversely affect a significant portion of people with adrenal fatigue. Buy your fruit from organic farmers, if possible, or health food stores and grocery stores who carry unsprayed or certified organic fruits and vegetables. If you cannot find organic or unsprayed fruit and vegetables, soak the produce in 3 quarts of water with 1 teaspoon of bleach added for 15 minutes, rinse well and dry, or use one of the vegetable washes that are now available in many grocery and health food stores. This will help remove most of the chemicals on the skins of the fruits and vegetables.

Below is a short list of fruits people with adrenal fatigue do better with and those they should avoid. A complete list of fruits is available in Appendix C. Remember that quantity, quality and time of day are all important in your fruit intake. As a general rule do not have fruit in the morning, eat only organic fruit that has not been sprayed with chemicals that could keep you tired for days, and eat only modest amounts at any one time. If the fruit has been sprayed with chemicals while growing (i.e. not organic) do not eat the skin. The extra nutrients are not worth the chemical poisons you eat with the outer surface. Nutritional deficiencies are much more easily rectified than chemical toxicities. Buy organically grown fruit whenever possible. Always wash fruit before eating.

Fats & Oils

Fats and oils have gotten a bad rap in North America over the past few years. Although it is true that most North Americans consume too much fat in their daily diet (40-55% of daily calories), it is also true that a disproportionate number of North Americans suffer from hypoadrenia. People with adrenal fatigue often crave fats and oils, partly because foods high in fats make them feel better for longer than low fat or sweet foods. Some fats also contain cholesterol needed by the adrenal glands to make the steroid hormones essential for adrenal activity throughout your body. Ideally, fats should not make up more than 20-25% of your total daily calories but it is very important that they are the right kind of fats.

Despite this huge over-consumption of fat, most North Americans are sadly lacking in the essential fatty acids that promote good skin quality, reduce inflammation and slow down the aging of body tissues. The type and quality of fats in your diet is critical because they become a major part of your cell walls, nerves and the membranes of your body. So do not simply decrease your fat intake but look closely at what kinds of oils and fats you eat to make sure you are choosing ones high in essential fatty acids that nourish your body. An excellent book on the subject of the essential fats is Udo Erasmus’ book “Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill.” Below are a few things you should know about fats and oils.

Saturated and Unsaturated Fats: Fats and oils are composed of 3

fatty acids stuck to a glycerol molecule. The fatty acids are chains of carbons that vary in length from 4 to 24 carbons, with an acid stuck on the end. Each carbon is connected to the next by either a single bond or a double bond. If all the carbons in the fatty acid chain are connected by only one bond between them, it is called a saturated fat (like butter, coconut oil and lard). When there is one double bond in the whole fatty acid chain, it is called a monounsaturated fat (like olive oil). If there is more than one double bond in the chain, it is called a polyunsaturated fat (like canola, peanut and safflower oil).

The common belief is that saturated fats are bad, polyunsaturates are good, monosaturates are best. The truth is that each has its uses. The oils least damaged by heating include: coconut, palm, palm kernel, cocoa butter, butter, refined peanut, refined avocado, high oleic sunflower, high oleic safflower, sesame oil and olive oil, in that order. Saturated fats withstand heat the best, and so do not become rancid or toxic as easily as other fats when heated. Use saturated fats for cooking (baking, broiling, sautéing, frying), but use the minimum amount needed to do the job and do not reuse them. You can recognize saturated fats by their ability to remain solid at room temperature. Butter, animal fat, palm and palm kernel oil, and coconut butter are common sources of saturated fats.

Monounsaturated fats can be used for low heat cooking, but should not be used for high heat or lengthy cooking. You can recognize monounsaturated fats by their property of being liquid at room temperature but solid when refrigerated. Olive oil contains a high amount of monounsaturates. Rapid stir frying, sautéing, and similar methods are acceptable ways of using these oils. When sautéing or stir-frying, put a little water in the pan before the oil to keep the oil from getting too hot, add garlic, onions or scallions to help decrease the rancidity caused by heating the oil, and use only small amounts of oil. Although these are the safest fats to cook with, none of these oils contain appreciable amounts of essential fatty acids. They are simply “less bad for you” because they do not break down as easily with heat.

Avoid deep fried foods. If you have cancer or any chronic degenerative disease, do not eat fried foods at all. If you have adrenal fatigue, only eat fried foods once a month or less, the cost to your health is just too high a price to pay for the sake of convenience or habit.

Polyunsaturated fatty acids are relatively fragile, even at room temperature and go rancid much more quickly than the other fats. Their average shelf life is only a few weeks after opening. The more heat and light they are exposed to, the more quickly they go rancid. Unstable as they are, we need certain polyunsaturates in our diet to be healthy. So although they should not be used for cooking, they should be added to food after it has been cooked, or used in salad dressings.

Essential Fatty Acids: Polyunsaturated fatty acids come in 2 categories, non-essential and essential. Non-essential fatty acids are those the body can make by itself from other fats and oils. Essential fatty acids are the fatty acids we need to get from food because we cannot make them ourselves. Luckily, there are some plants and animals that do make them. We can get our essential fatty acids by eating them and the oils made from them. Essential fatty acids are very important for us to consume in adequate amounts in order to maintain good health. Lack of intake or imbalances in the essential fatty acids has been shown to lead to a myriad of health problems.

There are 2 types of essential fatty acids, alpha-linolenic and linoleic. Alpha-linolenic acid belongs to the Omega 3 group of fatty acids and linoleic acid belongs to the Omega 6 group. Omega 3 fatty acids have more double bonds (3 to 6) and come from colder, more northern climates. Examples of foods high in omega 3 fatty acids are salmon, sardines, soybeans, walnuts, flax seeds, and in smaller amounts, dark green plants. Omega 6 fatty acids have fewer double bonds (2-4) and come from more southern plants such as sesame, sunflower, safflower, and corn. Both groups of essential fatty acids are extremely important to your health. An improper balance of essential fatty acids fosters the development of many conditions such as heart and circulatory disorders, arthritis and cancer, and the adrenals inevitably become involved in these diseases.

Because these oils contain a high number of double bonds, they are relatively unstable, so buy them in small quantities and keep them in the freezer. They stay liquid even in the freezer. Be selective; buy oils that are unrefined and pressed in cool temperatures (under 100 degrees F) from raw, organically grown seeds, and packaged in light-proof (dark, non-transparent) containers. You can find these oils in specialty stores, health food stores and on the internet. A good way to check for freshness and quality is the sniff test. Remove the cap when you get it home and smell the oil. It should have a pleasant smell, reminding you of the seed it was made from. If it smells fishy, bitter, like varnish or has another off-smell, return it because it is rancid and has probably been over-refined, over-heated, or had solvents used in its extraction.

The right balance of essential fatty acid intake contributes significantly to adrenal recovery, as well as to your general health. For optimum health the best balance of essential fatty acids is a 4:1 ratio of omega 6’s to omega 3’s. One easy way to get the right amount of essential fatty acids in this ratio is to mix 1 tablespoon of flax seed oil with 1 tablespoon of sunflower or safflower oil daily. Add this mixture, uncooked, to food just before you eat it (as salad dressing, mixed in with vegetables, sauces or grain, added to smoothies, etc.). My favorite way to add these oils is to mix a little soy sauce into them and use it in place of butter or margarine. It is very pleasant tasting when used as a condiment in this way.

Another great way to make certain your essential fatty acid intake is adequate is to follow these simple rules.

Getting the Essential Fatty Acids You Need

• Mix flax seed oil with safflower or sunflower seed oils in a 1:1 ratio
• Consume 1-2 tablespoon (uncooked) per day, sprinkled on meats, vegetables, grains, etc.
• Use only fresh, raw, cold pressed, unrefined oils
• Buy only organically grown oils stored in lightproof containers
• Keep all oils in the refrigerator or freezer
• Squeeze one capsule of 400 IU vitamin E (mixed tocopherols) into every ¼ cup oil
• Eat cold water ocean fish (except tuna, mackerel and swordfish.*) as a source of omega 3 oils
• Eat fresh seeds and nuts (except peanuts) as a source of omega 6 oils
• Avoid all hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils (read labels on food)
• Use lower temperature cooking methods (see cooking tips above)
• Eat fried foods only occasionally
• Avoid all deep fried foods
• Avoid restaurant foods cooked with oils

But even if you do eat the right quantity of essential fatty acids in the right ratio, their value can be negated if you also consume poor quality or hydrogenated oils. The problems created by hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated and poor quality fats will be covered in detail in the section below on “Foods to Avoid.” Read labels, do not buy any foods containing them and avoid fried foods in restaurants. If you continue to eat them, even though you are eating the right essential fatty acids as well, you will lose the very valuable, health enhancing aspects of essential oils, and promote body processes that spawn cancer, heart disease, arthritis obesity and other chronic ailments. Needless to say, you will also make it more difficult for your adrenals to recover.

Seeds and Nuts as a Source of Essential Fatty Acids

Choosing the right seeds and nuts - Seeds and nuts are an important source of essential fatty acids that your body converts into a number of different substances it needs. For example, if there is not enough cholesterol in your diet, your adrenal glands will manufacture the cholesterol needed to produce all the adrenal steroid hormones. This cholesterol is made from fatty acids derived from the oils you eat. As mentioned above, other substances manufactured from these oils become an integral part of the structure of your cell walls, nerves and membranes. Obviously, the better the quality of the oils and fats you eat, the easier it is for your body to produce good quality cell structures and hormones.

The following seeds and nuts are good sources of essential fatty acids, as long as they are purchased fresh and stored properly. Listed to the right side of most seeds and nuts, there are brief descriptions of what these seeds and nuts look like when they are fresh. You must make sure of their freshness when buying seeds, nuts, fish, and the oils from them. Rancid oils make the symptoms of adrenal fatigue worse and should absolutely be avoided. In parenthesis are the signs of rancidity for that particular seed or nut.

Seeds (raw only)

• Sesame Seeds, unhulled, – tan or black (shiny, bitter tasting or stale smelling seeds are rancid)
• Pumpkin Seeds – green (shiny seeds are rancid)
• Sunflower Seeds - mouse gray (brownish or shiny seeds are rancid)
• Flax Seeds - reddish brown (slightly fishy smelling seeds are rancid)

Nuts (raw only)

• Filberts – brown skin, creamy meat (shriveled nuts or nuts with dark spots on meat are rancid)
• Cashews – light beige, no skin (darkish brown or shiny cashews are rancid)
• Almonds - light brown skin, pale creamy meat (shriveled nuts or nuts with dark spots on meat are rancid)
• Brazil Nuts – dark brown skin, pale creamy meat (brown streaks on meat indicate rancidity)
• Macadamias – very pale cream color (shiny nuts or brown spots indicates rancidity)
• Coconuts, fresh – heavy, plenty of liquid, hard unbroken shell, white sweet smelling meat (fermented odor, brownish or shriveled meat indicates rancidity)
• Pecans – smooth shell, brown and cream meat (shiny, oily or shriveled nuts are rancid)
• Walnuts - smooth shell, brown and tan meat (shiny, oily or shriveled nuts are rancid)
• Peanuts – reddish skin, cream to light tan meat (shriveled, darkened or hard nuts are rancid; organically grown nuts, stored cold, are less likely to be contaminated by aflatoxin)
• Chestnuts – dark brown, plump, smooth shell with cream colored meat (shriveled, hard or dark meat indicates rancidity; nuts may also have bluish mold on the inside)

All seeds and nuts should be purchased raw and stored in the freezer to avoid rancidity. Although it is preferable to eat them raw, if you want roasted nuts, you can easily dry roast them. Simply heat them in a cast iron skillet on medium-low heat, stirring frequently, for about ten minutes, or bake them on a cookie sheet in an oven preheated to 200°F for approximately 20 minutes. Another way to make a great adrenal-friendly snack is to sprinkle soy sauce made from organically grown soybeans and free of MSG over nuts and seeds, just before or just after you roast them. Do not use oil for roasting nuts. After dry roasting, the nuts should be again stored in the freezer and be ready for instant use. Either raw or dry roasted nuts are great as a snack, incorporated into meals, blended into nut drinks, sprinkled onto salads, and used in many other ways. Avoid all nuts and seeds that have been commercially roasted or deep-fried. The high heat and poor quality oils used in this process usually make them go rancid quickly. Rancid oils are poisons and need to be avoided. They interrupt the normal metabolism of oils in the body and contribute to free radical damage in the cell walls. It is worth paying a little more for higher quality raw nuts and getting the benefits of their fresh oils than it is to submit your body to the destructive effects of rancid oils.

Rancid nuts and oils can especially play havoc with mental processes in subtle ways that are sometimes difficult to detect, but that interfere with daily life. Many more people are sensitive to rancid oils than realize it. Read the chapter “Food Allergies and Sensitivities” to learn how to find out if you are one of these people. I have known of several instances in which skeptical patients were surprised to see many positive changes in their mental functioning as well as in their health once they switched to eating raw seeds and nuts, stored in the freezer, and started using only organically grown, cold-pressed oils. A couple of interesting and dramatic examples are included in the section “Food sensitivities that are not allergies” in the chapter titled “Food Allergies and Sensitivities.” Whenever you have an adverse, allergic or sensitivity reaction to a food such as rancid oil, your adrenals have to once again draw on their resources to compensate for the stress and to rebalance your body chemistry.

Tips on Cooking with Oil – Even though it is important to consume the essential oils above, you do not want to cook with them. Fats and oils containing essential fatty acids break down easily with heat to form harmful free radicals, thus it is best to cook with oils low in essential fatty acids. Use the following chart to select your cooking oils. Note that none of the oils given in the table contain many essential fatty acids. Therefore, relying on these oils alone for your fat intake will result in essential fatty acid deficiencies. If you cook with oils, use one kind for cooking and add the oils high in essential fatty acids to your food just before serving. The oils listed below are more resistant to the toxic, free radical and rancid effects created by the heating of oils. Even these still break down if heated excessively though, so to protect yourself do the following:

• Avoid all deep-frying and browning
• Put a little water into the pan first before you add the food to be cooked
• Add the food before the oil
• Use only a small amount of oil (less than a tablespoon)

Summary of What to Eat

• 1) The Dietary Intake Wheel for adrenal fatigue, shown on the next page, summarizes what you should eat if you have adrenal fatigue. Here are 9 easy rules to follow.
• 2) Eat a wide variety of whole, natural foods.
• 3) Combine a fat, protein and carbohydrate source with every meal.
• 4) Eat lots of vegetables, especially the brightly colored ones.
• 5) Salt your food to a pleasant taste.
• 6) Eat mainly whole grains as starchy carbohydrate sources.
• 7) Combine grains with beans, seeds or nuts to form a complete protein.
• 8) Avoid fruit in the morning.
• 9) Mix 1-2 tablespoons of essential oils into grains, vegetables and meats daily.
• 10) Eat high quality food; it becomes you.
• 11) By following these simple guidelines, your food intake will help you recover from adrenal fatigue.

If you have moderate to severe adrenal fatigue, you will probably do better by increasing your protein intake and decreasing the starchy (whole grains) and sweet (fruit) carbohydrate content of your diet. Of course, sugar and white flour products should be eliminated altogether (see below). As you improve, you should gradually be able to handle the starchy carbohydrates (grains) and eventually the fruits in greater proportion. Re-read the section on proteins to become familiar with the most valuable ones for recovery.

Now that you know what to eat, it is important for you to also learn what foods to avoid. These are foods that can wreck your biochemistry, hormone balance, and eventually your health. Read the next section to find out how to protect your health by knowing which foods work behind the scenes to sabotage your health.

What Not to Eat

It is hard to say which is more important when you have adrenal fatigue - what to eat or what not to eat! Eating the wrong foods or combination of foods can throw you off for hours and even days, so do not even try to sneak something by; it is just not worth the price you have to pay. Pick the foods that are recommended and stick with them. The further you deviate from them, the more problems you are likely to have and the more difficult it will be to balance your body chemistry.

The Addictive Cycle of Sugar and White Flour Products: Ironically, foods made with these ingredients such as doughnuts, rolls, pies, cakes, cookies, crackers, candy bars, and soft drinks are the ones that many people suffering from adrenal fatigue crave. This is because when you have adrenal fatigue you also usually have hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and foods made from refined flour and/or sugar quickly raise your blood sugar. Unfortunately, they raise your blood sugar so high and so fast that too much insulin is released in response. This excess insulin then causes your blood sugar levels to crash, leading to hypoglycemic symptoms and more cravings. Furthermore, sugar and white flour are entirely naked calories, the metabolism of which drains an already depleted body of the vitamins and minerals it needs to heal or to maintain itself. Furthermore, because of their disruptive effects on your body’s metabolism, these substances can also produce cravings and compulsive behavior, and become addictive.

Millions upon millions of people in industrialized nations are addicted to white flour and sugar products. Look at the typical coffee break. It happens at 10:00 in the morning, approximately two hours after breakfast, and consists of a coffee and doughnut or some other combination of refined white flour and sugar. This temporarily drives your blood sugar up and the insulin soon follows. As mentioned above, the excess secretion of insulin causes a rapid drop in your blood sugar. Normally, when your blood sugar starts to fall, the circulating cortisol triggers certain proteins and fats to be converted into blood sugar to compensate for this drop. But when your adrenals are fatigued, the amount of cortisol in circulation is low and cannot keep up with the demand to create new blood sugar. Consequently, your blood sugar continues to drop unchecked to even lower levels. As luck would have it, this happens about 11:30 to 12:00 when you can usually stem the plunge with lunch.

But again, people often polish off lunch with a cup of coffee, a soda, or a dessert, which drives blood sugar artificially high once more. They know that if they do not end the meal this way they will become sleepy at around 2:00 PM. However, the reason they get sleepy after a meal is that their repeated consumption of refined carbohydrates has, over time, reduced their ability to secrete enough digestive juices to totally digest the food. Then, of course, around 3:00 PM, there is another crash typical of low adrenal function. To avoid this, many people take another coffee break at 2:00 PM at which they consume more refined carbohydrates to get the blood sugar up and going. Or they may continually drink coffee or soft drinks all afternoon. By the end of the day, if you follow this typical pattern, you probably feel like a wreck because you have consumed the kinds of foods and beverages that have taken your blood sugar on a roller coaster ride. If you replace the items made with white flour like pies, cakes, cookies, crackers, most desserts, commercial breads and pastas, and all caffeine containing or sweet drinks like sodas with foods that contain nutrients and not just energy, you will quit robbing your body of what it needs. More than that, you will be able to get off the perpetual hypoglycemic roller coaster ride that leaves you fatigued, inefficient, and aging more quickly inside.

The Hidden Message in Chocolate Cravings: Yep, we finally got to it. You thought we were going to gloss right over chocolate and not mention it. If you have a piece of chocolate once or twice a year, you can probably skip this section. However, if you crave chocolate, would almost be willing to kill for chocolate, or if chocolate is a coveted part of your diet, then you need to read this.

A craving for chocolate can sometimes actually be your body’s craving for magnesium, since chocolate contains large amounts of magnesium. This is especially true in women who crave chocolate before they menstruate or who have PMS. Magnesium helps mediate the symptoms of PMS because it is intimately involved in the manufacture of progesterone. A lack of magnesium can lead to inadequate progesterone levels, producing the PMS symptoms. In the body’s wisdom, it craves chocolate because chocolate is rich in magnesium. The unfortunate aspect, however, is that chocolate is also high in caffeine and a caffeine-like substance, theobromine, that over stimulate the adrenals leading to further adrenal fatigue. Much of the fine balancing of the sex hormones is accomplished by the adrenals, and the increase in adrenal fatigue leads to increased PMS. So chocolate ends up increasing PMS even though it contains magnesium.

Therefore it is much better to use your craving for chocolate as a reminder to get your magnesium from some other source. The easiest solution is to supplement your diet with 400 mg. of magnesium per day. Presently, the best form of magnesium for the cost is magnesium citrate. It is readily available, easily absorbed and effective. For severe cases of PMS, take magnesium all month long. For mild cases, take it from the time of ovulation (12th to 14th day from the first day of your cycle) until the next cycle starts. That physical craving for chocolate should decrease rapidly, often within one to two weeks after beginning the magnesium supplement, and should disappear or remain negligible as long as the amount of magnesium intake remains adequate. Foods high in magnesium such as kelp, almonds, cashews and other nuts, sesame seeds (brown), whole wheat, peas, and beans should also be increased.

The Evils of Hydrogenated and Partially Hydrogenated Oils: Hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats are oils that have been altered chemically to have certain properties (like remaining solid at room temperature) that have nothing to do with your health. Three common examples are vegetable shortening, margarine and the oil in commercial peanut butters. These adulterated fats are used in almost all commercially prepared food items found in grocery stores and in many restaurant foods. So even in our fat-phobic society, we still consume a tremendous amount of the wrong kinds of fats and oils. A great deal of these bad fats and oils are eaten in the pre-prepared products mentioned earlier.

You learned in the section about seeds and oils just how valuable and important the right kinds of fats and oils are to your health. The good fats are those that the body can use to build tissue, such as nerve and cell wall membranes, and the bad fats are the ones that block this from happening. When you eat foods containing hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats they disrupt normal fatty acid metabolism in your body. They use up the enzymes that normally would be utilized by the good oils, and prevent your body from creating quality cell membranes and nerve sheaths. As a result, your body cannot transform essential fatty acids into the materials it needs to make various cell wall components and other structures.

A recent clinical study in Canada demonstrated that the metabolism of good oils into substances needed by the body was completely blocked when the people in the study were given hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. This means that the margarine you have been eating instead of butter is probably doing you more harm than good.

Therefore, read the labels on everything that you buy. You may be surprised to see just how many of the foods you eat contain hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils or fats. Any time you see hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils or fats, put that food back on the shelf and do not buy it. Alternatives are available in health food stores and in the grocery store, if you look carefully.

Even though you may crave these familiar foods, eating them seriously interferes with your ability to heal. What you are really craving are the essential fatty acids. Go back and re-read the sections “Getting the essential fatty acids you need” and “Seeds and nuts as a source of essential fatty acids” to know how to truly satisfy your body’s craving.

Avoid Deep Fried Foods: Most deep fried foods are fried in hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats. These fats are kept at high temperatures and are often reused. As the oil is heated above a certain temperature or reheated, it breaks down, forming toxic free radicals and becoming rancid. This means that eating deep fried food causes not only the same problems as hydrogenated fats but also the additional problems created by toxic free radicals. Because free radicals are produced when oils break down with heat, you should also avoid food fried in oils high in essential fatty acids (cold pressed sunflower, flax, peanut, safflower, etc.) or any foods fried at a high temperature or for long periods of time.

Avoid “Fast” Foods and Junk Foods: There are numerous problems with typical fast food and junk food. They all contain white flour, sugar, hydrogenated fats, or all three. Often their ingredients are poor quality (cheap) with little nutrient value, and artificial colors, flavors and preservatives are used to make up for this. What nutrients they do have are frequently lost while they are kept hot or stored for long periods of time. It is questionable whether some junk foods are even food at all. You do not need these “foods,” they only create havoc with your biochemistry, make you fat, and leave you feeling wrecked after the insulin rush is over.

Avoid Foods You Are Allergic or Sensitive To: It is important to completely eliminate all foods and food substances that you are allergic or sensitive to. Unless there is an anaphylactic reaction (cannot breathe) or hives, most people are not aware that their symptoms may be a reaction to a food they are sensitive too. Chapter 14, “Food Allergies and Sensitivities” will explain the role food allergies and sensitivities play in adrenal fatigue. It describes in detail how you can find out what foods you may be allergic or sensitive to, if any, and what you can do to help yourself if this is a factor in your adrenal fatigue.

Avoid Foods You Are Addicted To: Foods you crave are often foods that contain substances you are addicted to for reasons that may involve food sensitivities and/or hypoglycemia. Eating these foods places more stress on your adrenals and so you should avoid them. Refer to the section on food addiction in the next chapter for more information.

How to Eat

The Act of Eating - How you eat can have as much affect on your adrenal glands as what you eat. Before you start a meal, it is important to prepare your body so it can begin the complicated process of digestion, absorption, and utilization of energy and nutrients. If you have any control over your eating environment, choose a peaceful spot with pleasant surroundings. If you do not, think of pleasant surroundings and use things like headphones or photos to change your environment. Play music or other relaxing sounds through your headphones and visualize or look at things in your environment that are relaxing or beautiful. Think of enjoyable things. Eating with friends is also a good idea. Congenial conversation and good company promotes relaxation and digestion. Rushing through meals while focusing on work or problems, and eating with people or in situations that make you tense are bad for your health.

Eat your food sitting down, not standing up at a counter, not running from one place to another, not driving nor lying down but actually sitting in one place peacefully. Before you start to eat, take a moment to calm yourself.

Take a deep breath and let it out after you are seated and ready to eat. Take a second deep breath, hold it for a few seconds, and then let it out. Take a third breath, breathing in deeply from the abdomen, hold it for a longer time, and then let it out. The idea is not to see if you can turn blue while holding your breath, but to help your body relax. When you are relaxed the part of your nervous system that is responsible for digestion and absorption is free to function properly. Holding your breath for ten to twenty seconds is a good way for your body to begin to relax.

Next, take a moment to be grateful because just by the fact that you are alive, you have many blessings. Bringing your body and mind together with your breathing and gratitude settles your body and prepares it to eat. If at all possible, eat your meal peacefully and slowly. Eating peacefully and slowly also helps you digest your food more completely, allowing you to get the most value out of your food and experience fewer digestive problems. It also is more refreshing.

Chew your food well because chewing properly makes a surprisingly significant difference to good digestion. The instructions for chewing are very simple; chew, chew, chew. (See Illustration “When you eat, think of trains…”). Chew 30 times per mouthful if at all possible. If you have digestive upsets or difficulty digesting food, chew 60 times per mouthful. With diabetic patients and patients with digestive problems, I always have them chew 100 times per mouthful because the more thorough the chewing, the more completely the food particles are mixed with saliva which contains enzymes for digestion. In addition, the act of chewing is a relaxing one.

Avoid rushed and hectic meals and gulping down your food because that is exactly the opposite of what your body needs to recover from adrenal fatigue. The combination of sitting down to eat, taking time to breathe, experiencing gratitude before eating, eating peacefully and slowly, and chewing well is a very relaxing and restorative process that aids the entire body. Eating and the act of eating then become therapeutic in themselves.

If you have hypoglycemia, which is very common in people with adrenal fatigue, having several small meals during the day may be better than one or two large ones. Many people with blood sugar irregularities find that more frequent small meals work better for them than one or two large meals. Even in the smaller meals, it is important to chew very well, at least 30 times per mouthful.

Even when you eat and drink the right things, in the right way, hidden food sensitivities may be bringing down your adrenals. The next chapter will tell you all about hidden food allergies and sensitivities. If you have times when you feel bad for no reason, read on because this and other symptoms such as brain fog, sporadic poor coordination, and many other symptoms related to adrenal fatigue can be caused by your reactions to food.

Beverages

Drink Me – People with adrenal fatigue often crave caffeine or cola beverages because of the stimulatory effect of the caffeine. The difficulty with this is that caffeine also over-stimulates the adrenals, which leads to further fatiguing when the caffeine wears off. Therefore, many people with adrenal fatigue get through the day by kicking their adrenals with several cups of coffee and beverages containing caffeine or by combining caffeine, sweets, and chocolate (which contains caffeine and a caffeinelike substance). Although this makes them feel better temporarily, this regimen will eventually exhaust the adrenals even more, leading them into further difficulties. Therefore, avoid caffeine containing foods and beverages.

Below is a list of beverages that work better for people with adrenal fatigue. Those that need preparation have an asterisk beside them and there will be instructions for how to prepare them listed on the following pages. Several of the drinks listed are accompanied by necessary explanations.

Green Tea – Green tea is better for your adrenals than regular (black) tea or coffee. Even though it has a small amount of caffeine, it contains high amounts of antioxidants and other nutrients. Green tea has been noted for its anti-cancer or cancer protection qualities. It is pleasant tasting, refreshing, easy to make, and can be taken hot, cold, or at room temperature. If the green tea you buy tastes very strong or bitter, it is poor quality, so try another brand. It is readily available in some of the larger grocery stores, as well as in high quality health food stores and oriental markets.

Barley Tea – Barley tea is tea made from roasted barley. Available in tea bags at most oriental markets and some health food stores, it can be drunk hot or cold. I use it in the summer in place of regular ice tea, keeping a gallon jar of it in the refrigerator. It is pleasant, with a light, roasted taste. You can also easily make your own barley tea by roasting unhulled barley on a cookie sheet in a 200 degree oven until it turns brown and has a roasted fragrance. After it cools, store it in plastic bags to keep it fresh.

Twig Tea or Kukicha Tea – Twig or Kukicha tea is made from the small twigs of the tea plant. It is prepared by boiling some of these twigs in water and can be taken hot or cold. One of the advantages of twig tea is that it has a nice roasted taste. It also has the same viscosity as coffee, although it does not taste like coffee. I found that some people miss the consistency of coffee as much as the stimulation and so twig tea provides a good substitute with that consistency. It is available in some oriental stores, health food stores, and from all microbiotic outlets.

Bancha Tea – Bancha tea is another tea available from oriental markets. There are many different kinds of bancha teas, some have small tea leaves, some have twigs, and some are combined with roasted rice. Any of them are all right to consume and each has its own unique flavor. Again, the bancha tea can be taken hot or cold and is versatile in its uses.

Herbal Tea – Over the last twenty years a tremendous variety of herbal teas have come on the market and are now produced by large commercial companies. Because there is such a variety of teas, it is difficult to comment on each of them. As a general rule, it is important that the herbal teas contain only herbal teas and are not mixed with black teas. Herbal teas can be taken hot or cold, can be mixed with nut milks, and are very refreshing.

Water - You might think that the topic of water would be very straightforward. However, water is actually quite a complicated issue. The difficulty is twofold: 1) the poor water quality in most city water supplies contains toxic substances especially detrimental for people suffering from adrenal fatigue, and 2) people with low adrenals have specific problems with their internal water balance.

City water supplies include one or more of the following health hazards: high pH, increased particulate matter, toxic metals, and toxic chemicals including excessive chlorine or fluoride. Bacterial, viral and even parasitic contaminants are also problems. As a result, unless you have done adequate research on your own water supply and determined it to be safe, you may be risking short or long term health problems by drinking your local water. Even some bottled waters are known to contain contaminants. The recommended solution for this is to have a water purification system installed at the tap or in your house. The system you purchase should filter for chemicals (chlorine, toxic industrial chemicals such as PCBs & TCE, toxic metals, pesticides, herbacides, fungacides, microorganisms, rust and particulate matter) but leave the minerals in the solution. It is also important not to drink softened water because it softens your bones and teeth.

To check the quality of your water, try these simple tests. 1) Use a chlorine indicator (from a swimming pool supply company) to determine its chlorine concentration. No chlorine is best, but the lower the better. 2) With a simple pH meter (from a local electronic supply or hardware store) measure the water’s pH. If the pH is much over 7.6, then the water is too hard and probably has too much particulate matter. 3) Get a bottle of colloidal silver, 15 parts per million (from a health food store or the internet), and drop a capful (1 tsp) into an 8oz glass of water. If the water becomes cloudy, then the water is probably contaminated with microorganisms. To do a control test, drop the same amount of colloidal silver into 8oz of distilled water. It should remain clear. The cloudier the water, the more microorganisms are in the water.

Water poses a specific problem for people with adrenal fatigue because they tend toward dehydration but can easily over dilute the circulating electrolytes (sodium, potassium, magnesium and chlorine) in their blood by drinking too much water. The balance of sodium and potassium significantly affects the symptoms experienced by people with adrenal fatigue and drinking plain water alters this balance (see “Anatomy and Physiology” in chapter 22 for explanation). Therefore although they are often thirsty, drinking water may make them feel worse. To help balance the ratio of water to sodium and avoid this problem try adding ¼ to ½ teaspoon salt (sodium chloride) to every glass of drinking water. You will probably find that the lightly salted water actually tastes better than regular water if your adrenals are low because the salted water is more beneficial to your body. Certainly you will feel much better because your body needs both the salt as well as the water. If you are feeling especially draggy or fatigued, add more salt to the water. If you have an aversion to salted water, then you probably need less or no salt in the water Too much salt in the water will make you nauseated so adjust according to taste.

Drinking salted water just after you wake up can help you to function better in the early morning. Having another glass with a snack at around 2:00 PM can also lessen or sometimes prevent the lows typically experienced in adrenal fatigue between 3:00 to 4:00 PM. My patients have demonstrated over and over again how important salted water is to coping with and recovering from the symptoms of adrenal fatigue. Some have been able to assess the level of their adrenal function simply by their desire for salt.

A Caution with Fruit Juices - Fruit juices and fruit drinks are not good beverages to have in any quantity if you are hypoadrenic and/or hypoglycemic. Once in a while they can be tolerated, diluted or in small quantities. Add a pinch of salt to help balance the high potassium content of fruit juice. You may find that it tastes better to you with the salt as well. Do not drink fruit juices early in the morning or anytime you are experiencing major symptoms of adrenal fatigue. If you start experiencing increased low adrenal symptoms within 90 minutes of drinking fruit juice, then the fruit juice is probably at fault and you should avoid it in the future. Orange juice seems to be especially detrimental to people with adrenal fatigue. It might be the concentrated fruit sugar, the pesticides in the rind (most orange juice is made by grinding the entire orange rind and all oranges are heavily sprayed). Avoid orange juice especially before noon if you suffer from adrenal fatigue. So the take home message from fruit juices is do not drink them in the morning, do not have them by themselves, and only drink them in small quantities.

Vegetable Juices - Fresh vegetable juices contain many nutrients that are excellent for the body. Almost any vegetable can be juiced, and the flavor is sometimes a touch of heaven. Combinations like carrot/celery/beet or carrot/parsley are rich in color, high in vitamins and phytonutrients, and help stimulate the liver. However, too much juice at one time can drive blood sugar up too high in some people, causing them to crash between 3/4 and 1-1/2 hours later. Adding a pinch of salt and eating food with the juice helps minimize this reaction but it is always best to drink these juices in small quantities (4-6oz) at intervals rather than drinking a large amount all at once. It is also best to drink them fresh from the juicer. You can buy juicers from many health food stores. Juicers of lesser quality, but adequate, can also be found in department stores and specialty shops.

Canned tomato or vegetable blend juices are becoming more popular for work breaks, with snacks and as an alternative to cola or alcoholic beverages at social gatherings. Put a celery stick or lemon a slice in a Virgin Mary (a Bloody Mary without the vodka) and you can avoid social commentaries about not consuming alcohol at parties. The only downside to this is that you have to endure the drunks when they think they are so funny. But it is a small price to pay for feeling good the next day and not taxing your health. Always read the ingredients on commercial vegetable juices; many of them contain sugar, corn syrup or fruit juice. These ones should be left on the shelf.

Milk

Cow’s Milk - Milk can be both the perfect whole food and the source of many problems. My experience is that people suffering from adrenal fatigue do not do well with cow’s milk. There are several reasons for this. One is that cow’s milk contains a high amount of lactose (milk sugar). We know that approximately 50% of Whites, 90% of Blacks, and nearly all Orientals are lactose intolerant. When you drink a glass of milk, you are drinking a large amount of sugar that is easily absorbed into your blood stream, leading to the hypoglycemic roller coaster I have mentioned before. This is covered in more detail in the “Anatomy and Physiology” chapter, but suffice it to say, consuming a glass of milk can be as disruptive to blood sugar as eating several handfuls of candy. In addition, the protein in milk (casein) is a common allergen. Allergies are hard on the adrenals and therefore place further stress on people with low adrenal function. Like many mild allergens, it temporarily stimulates adrenal function but then leads to further adrenal fatigue. If you like thetaste of milk and the nutrients in milk, a much better alternative is fresh goat’s milk.

Goat’s Milk - Goat’s milk is a much better choice than cow’s milk. It is more similar to human milk, lower in lactose and very much less likely to cause allergies. In fact, I have used goat’s milk successfully to replace of cow’s milk with hundreds of babies and young children who are allergic to cow’s milk. These infants often came into my office with diarrhea and a rash. Switching them to goat’s milk not only made their diarrhea and rash disappear, but also increased their immune function. In many states it is possible to get unpasteurized goat’s milk from certified goats. This is the best form of goat’s milk. One thing to note about goat’s milk is that the longer it stands in the refrigerator, the stronger the taste. Therefore, the fresher the goat’s milk, the milder the taste and the more you will enjoy it, so buy only the quantity you will use up within 3 or 4 days. Goat’s milk is a rich source of many nutrients and is usually available through health food stores and local farmers. Several national supermarket chains now also carry a pasteurized form in the dairy section. Goat’s milk is a healthy, nutritious choice.

Rice Milk - Rice milk can be made at home or is available commercially from health food stores and most grocery stores. Rice milk can be used in place of regular milk in most instances, although its nutritional content is not the same. We use it on cereals, in cooking, baking, shakes, and smoothies; there is even rice milk ice cream. Rice milk varies quite a bit among commercial manufacturers, therefore look at the ingredients and taste test different brands to choose the one you like the best. Rice milk does not contain the variety of nutrients found in goat’s milk, but the calcium-fortified version does provide a comparable amount of calcium. It has the advantages of being more widely available and it can be made at home.

To make your own rice milk, put 2 cups of organically grown short grain brown rice in a 3 quart stainless steel or glass cooking pot with a tight fitting lid. Rinse rice with tap water until the water is clear and drain. Pour 4 cups spring water in the pot with the rice, add ½ teaspoon of sea salt and bring to a boil, uncovered. As soon as it comes to a boil turn down heat to a low simmer, place the tight fitting lid on pan and cook for 1 hour. Do not lift the lid or stir the rice. It will cook fine without being stirred and looked at. After cooking, let it cool. Place 2 cups cooked rice with 8 cups water, 2 tablespoons sesame oil and 1 tablespoon of unfiltered honey in the blender and blend for 2-3 minutes. Strain through three layers of cheesecloth into a sterile container, squeezing the cheesecloth to express as much liquid as possible. The brown rice solids can be used to make rice pudding, rice bread or other nice tasting items. The brown rice mixture can be mixed with nuts (almonds are especially good) to make a drink containing a complete protein (nuts and grains). The portion of nuts to be cooked with brown rice is approximately 4:1 rice to nuts.

Soy Milk – Soy milk is now widely available in most grocery and health food stores. Like rice milk it can be used in place of regular milk but is more difficult to make at home. It is higher in protein than rice milk and the calcium-fortified version has about the same amount of calcium as cow’s milk. Soy milk comes in several flavors and is also made into ice cream. Try different brands to find one you like. Note, however, that soy is becoming one of the most common allergens, so proceed slowly with it and pay attention to how you feel after eating or drinking soy products.

Nut Milks – Nut milk can be easily made in a blender with almost any kind of nut and water. My two favorites are almond milk and cashew milk, or a combination of almond and cashew milk. Nut milks are a pleasant substitute for people who are sensitive to cow’s milk and are looking for an alternative that they can make themselves. Milks can also be made from certain seeds, such as sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds, using the same procedure. It should be noted that both the nut and the seed milks are an excellent source of essential fatty acids and are a welcome addition to North American diets.

To make nut and seed milks, place in blender:
1 cup of your favorite raw nuts and seeds
4 cups of warm spring water
1 tablespoon unfiltered honey diluted with ¼ cup warm water ¼ teaspoon of sea salt
3 capsules (400 IU) Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols) - open and squeeze oil into mixture, discard capsule.

Blend together for 2-3 minutes on medium high speed. Strain through 3 layers of cheesecloth into a sterile container, squeezing the cheesecloth to express as much liquid as possible. Store in the refrigerator. The nut residue can be mixed with cooked rice or other ingredients like dried fruit to make bars, cookies and desserts.

Carob - Carob can be used as a chocolate substitute and is preferable to chocolate in its physiological activity in the body. For example, whereas chocolate aggravates hypoglycemia and over stimulates the adrenals, carob normalizes hypoglycemia and does not contain stimulants. Carob comes in the form of powder, bars, or chips that can be used in baking instead of cocoa powder or chocolate chips. The powder makes a delicious hot or cold beverage that is a favorite at our house. To make a carob drink mix one heaping teaspoon of carob with one teaspoon of honey diluted in one teaspoon of warm water, then stir this syrup into six to eight ounces of hot or cold goat, nut or rice milk. You can find carob in all health food stores and in the specialty section of some supermarkets. Carob is great for people who are allergic to chocolate, because carob tastes a lot like chocolate, but does not produce the allergic reactions like chocolate. Because it stabilizes blood sugar and contains several nutrients, carob is a healthy alternative to chocolate and as a stand-alone favorite beverage.

Don’t Drink Me

Chocolate - Hot cocoa, and other chocolate beverages are too likely to drive your adrenals with the combination of caffeine and sugar that they contain. Play it safe and avoid them.

Caffeine - “Forbid adrenal stimulating foods and drugs, especially coffee... The adrenals are already over stimulated.” (Harrower, ’29, pg. 86)

There has long been convincing evidence about the adverse effects of caffeine and caffeine like substances on your health. My advice is to avoid them altogether. Read the labels to make sure that what you drink or eat does not have coffee, chocolate, black tea, or added caffeine (like many soft drinks) as one of the ingredients. Coffee, black tea and chocolate all contain various quantities of caffeine and also a substance similar to caffeine called theobromine that further interferes with adrenal function. Therefore even decaffeinated coffee and tea are not recommended for people with adrenal fatigue. Another reason to avoid coffee is that as coffee is roasted and then ground; the oils in coffee become rancid much more quickly after roasting or grinding and these rancid oils have detrimental effects of their own. A certain percentage of people are sensitive to the rancid oils contained in foods and beverages, often without realizing it. If you still need another incentive to leave that coffee on the shelf, let me tell you that coffee is also a strong prooxidant, greatly increasing oxidation within the cells. Simply put, this causes you to age faster.

Because coffee contains all these undesirables that affect your adrenals and your overall metabolism, it makes sense to eliminate coffee completely. However, knowing that industrialized nations drink tons and tons of coffee per day, it is likely that some of you, even though you know that coffee is not good for you, will occasionally have a cup of coffee. If you embark on this dangerous route, here are some pointers. (1) Understand that what you are doing is not good for your body; it only makes you more tired in the long run and there are other ways to feel better. (2) Never have coffee by itself; always have it with some good quality food. (3) Get the freshest and highest quality coffee possible. (4) Drink coffee with cream as the oils in the cream slightly mitigate the negative effects of the caffeine. (5) Do not drink coffee late in the afternoon because it interferes with the formation of the alpha rhythm in the brain necessary for sound sleep. (6) Take extra magnesium, calcium, B complex, vitamin C and antioxidants when drinking coffee, to help detoxify the pathways that coffee impairs. (7) Instead of consuming a full cup of coffee, only have one to two sips and leave the rest of the cup. (8) Take several doses of homeopathic chamomile (12x potency) to help counter the negative effects of coffee. 9). Remember that even when you do all these things, and even though you may feel better initially after a cup of coffee, the upside of coffee is always followed by a down side. The downside is usually felt in the morning and lasts much longer than the upside.

Alcohol - Alcohol is a special kind of poison for the adrenals that should not be consumed by people suffering from hypoadrenia. Alcohol is a naked carbohydrate in an extremely refined form (more refined than white sugar) that quickly finds it way into the cells of your body, forcing them to make energy at a rapid rate. This sets off the blood sugar roller coaster described earlier in the section “What not to eat” and uses up a large number of your body’s nutrients that are not replaced by the alcoholic beverage. Tintera in his excellent 1955 article on hypoadrenia, comments on two kinds of alcoholism related to the adrenals. In one, the alcohol craving is driven by the body’s desperate need for quick energy that results from weak adrenals. The alcohol temporarily compensates for the signs and symptoms of hypoadrenia but leads to further adrenal fatigue after the effects of the alcohol have worn off, thus producing a further need for alcohol. In the other, the person becomes hypoadrenic as a result of alcohol consumption.

If, despite these warnings, you are going to consume alcohol, follow these pointers. 1) Consume it only in small quantities and on a full stomach. 2) Have alcohol with meals that are high in fats or oils as the fats and oils help inhibit the absorption of alcohol and moderate its sudden impact on your cells.

If you are using liquid herbal extracts, look for ones that are in a nonalcohol base. Tinctures use alcohol as the solvent and although this is normally an excellent method for extracting the active elements in herbs, the amount of alcohol in the tincture can offset the benefit of the herbal product when your adrenals are low. It is better to use either a watersoluble preparation or one in a glycerin base. If this is not possible, either let the herbal mixture sit after it has been mixed with juice or whatever. Some of the alcohol will evaporate while it is sitting. Better yet, heat the mixture. After about 5-15 minutes of steeping, the alcohol will evaporate and the mixture will become relatively alcohol free. Cool and drink.

Soft Drinks - Colas and other carbonated beverages should also be avoided. All contain sugar or artificial sugar, and most contain caffeine. Artificial sweeteners are themselves a becoming a major concern as their side effects and possible hazards to health are getting more recognition. Do yourself a favor and do not be lured into drinking them. They may taste good, but are only a detriment to your health.

It is as important to know what to avoid as it is to know what foods and beverages to eat and drink. Make regaining your health a major priority and do not sacrifice it for the cheap gratification of a favorite, but unhealthy, food or drink. In order to heal and maintain your health, you need to stack as many things in your favor as possible. Another factor you can stack on your side is eating in a way that facilitates digestion.

Footnotes

• * An overview of the physiology of adrenal fatigue, cortisol levels and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) is given in Chapter 22 in the section entitled “The Interaction of Low Cortisol, Adrenal Fatigue and Hypoglycemia”.
• * These fish are too high in mercury.