You wouldn't necessarily think it, but night time is actually quite a stressful time for the body. Whilst asleep, you essentially 'fast'. Levels of active thyroid hormone (T3) fall and stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol tend to peak, often kicking in as blood sugar drops*. So when you wake, your body is actually in a bit of a state of stress and, consequently, low metabolism (lowered thyroid function). 

Skipping breakfast (or surviving on black coffee alone) only exacerbates this state. It's really important to get some food in first thing, to curb the stress response, boost metabolism, restock glycogen stores and effectively balance blood sugar from the get-go. Carbohydrates - including sugars - tick all these boxes (carbs restrain the release of stress hormones, facilitate the conversion of thyroid hormone to its active form thereby increasing metabolic rate, and can be utilized to restock glycogen stores), and a meal combining plenty of carbohydrates (such as starch, fruit, fresh fruit juice or natural sugar syrup) balanced with a bit of protein (dairy, eggs, etc) is ideal. Don't forget to include some sodium (salt) at breakfast too, another powerful anti-stress, pro-metabolic nutrient. 

*Symptoms of low blood sugar, high nocturnal stress hormone activity and low metabolism/low thyroid include: waking during the early hours of the morning with a racing mind, rapid heartbeat and/or sweat (due to adrenaline peaking); waking once or more to urinate (the body literally 'sheds' water to conserve both salt and sugar); disturbed sleep patterns; and/or lack of appetite in the morning due to elevated levels of cortisol. 

So. Pancakes! 

Serves 4

1 cup self-raising flour
½ cup desiccated or shredded coconut
1 tsp bicarb of soda
Pinch salt
1 egg
½ cup mashed banana (from ~1 medium banana)
100g ricotta, plus extra to serve
1 cup milk
25g butter
Maple syrup and blueberries, to serve

Sift flour into a mixing bowl and add desiccated coconut, bicarb of soda and salt. Whisk together egg, ricotta, banana and milk with a fork.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients, stirring to combine and beating out any lumps as you go.  

Heat a frying pan over medium-low heat and grease with butter. Pour ⅓ cup pancake batter into the pan to create one pancake (you may be able to cook 2 or 3 pancakes at a time depending on the size of your frying pan). Cook until bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake, then flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes until golden. Repeat to use up batter.

Serve with extra ricotta, blueberries and maple syrup.
 

Kate is a certified Clinical Nutritionist and offers one-on-one coaching for clients in Sydney Australia, and internationally via Skype. Visit the nutrition services page to find out more about private coaching, and be sure to subscribe via email and follow the Nutrition by Nature Facebook page for blog updates, articles, nutrition tips, recipes and special offers.  

Any followers out there from the Apple Isle?? I'm excited to announce that I'll be popping down to Tassie to host a Nutrition Workshop/Education Session thanks to lovely Mel at Booty (gobooty.com.au). Mel's an award-winning group personal trainer and psychologist-in-the-making who I was in touch with recently about all things health and nutrition – now we're joining forces to get the word out to the masses! 

A little bit about the event, what I'll be talking about, etc (from Mel), below. Details regarding registration at the end – I hope to see some of you there!

One of the common questions that I field from clients and readers is how best to avoid water retention. I see countless people who do everything they can to avoid “puffiness” (particularly women, around menstruation) in order to feel ‘leaner’ – they typically reduce salt and increase water intake drastically (which of course is what is widely recommended). 

I thought I’d tackle the problems surrounding these strategies (reducing salt, increasing water) to try to combat water retention, to explain how in actual fact, they’re much more likely to amplify the problem, rather than solve it. Ultimately, decreasing sodium (salt) in the diet will increase water retention, not the other way around. 

I’ve written about gelatin before, both here and here. But (for new readers in particular, hello!) to summarize, some of the health benefits of gelatin and why you’d go out of your way to include it in your diet: 

Welcome to Q&A Mondays! Each Monday, I'll endeavour to answer some of the health questions sent in by readers via email, or that have been posted on the Nutrition by Nature Facebook page. 

This week's questions are short but sweet, general food queries. Here goes... 

Welcome to Q&A Mondays! Each Monday, I'll endeavour to answer some of the health questions sent in by readers via email, or that have been posted on the Nutrition by Nature Facebook page. 

This week, Stuart asks via email:

The proponents of calorie restriction, and intermittent fasting state that it reduces the levels of circulating IGF-1 [Insulin-like Growth Factor 1], which gets upregulated by a "high protein" diet.  The higher levels of IGF-1 apparently lead to a shorter lifespan, and increase your risk of tumour (according to animal studies anyway).

A) Do you believe this is true, despite these methods going against having a high metabolism?

B) Is IGF-1 secreted independently of insulin, and mainly in response to protein intake?

Potatoes get such a bad rap. Nutritionally-speaking, they’re an excellent source of vitamin C, B6, thyroid-supporting carbohydrates, some usable protein, and are one of the vegetables that contain the least natural plant toxins*. What’s more, they’re an excellent vehicle for other tasty and nutritious foods – butter, salt and cheese (you think I’m kidding, but I assure you I’m not).   

I really, really love milk. And cheese. And cream, yoghurt, custard and ice cream! But I get that not everyone enjoys (or can tolerate) dairy. Whatever your reason, the problem with not consuming dairy is that it is pretty difficult to obtain enough calcium in your diet via non-dairy sources – the calcium in vegetable foods such as broccoli, kale, dried figs and chickpeas tends to be poorly bioavailable, inadequately digested and inconvenient (you’d have to eat a truckload of figs or broccoli, which may come along with other, uh, ‘side effects’). 

There are some foods I really WISH were healthy. Cherry Ripe bars are one of them! But a quick squiz at the ingredients list yields unpromising results: