I am a Naturopath - This is What I Eat in a Typical Day

I am a naturopath and acupuncturist, have 2 children whom I am involved in chauffeuring around and a devoted wife.  To fit everything I do in a day, I make sure I feed my body with the right fuel.

In my current regime, I start off my day with some lemon or apple cider vinegar in warm water. I will put 2 eggs to soft boil and make some vegetable juice which I add Shape Up Protein Powder to or make a protein smoothie with berries, nuts and seeds.  What I have changes according to the seasons and what I need.   I would have my supplements with breakfast.  My current program includes O-Clear & P-Lift (to keep my hormones in balance), Hemagenics, MetaPure fish oil, thyroid supplements and Vitamin D.

At lunch, I often have leftover stewed/ roasted or stirfried chicken or fish or meat with some lightly steamed vegetables unless I decided to stirfry extra vegetables from dinner last night.

I typically have dinner before 7 p.m. Tonight’s menu is:

Panfried salmon served with seaweed

Steamed broccoli with maple walnuts and toasted sesame seeds

½ cup of brown basmati rice.

This meal is easy to prepare and tastes delicious.  As a busy working mum, I typically only have 30-45 mins each day to prepare meals, and it needs to be nourishing and tastes good, or else my children won’t eat much of it.

Here’s how I make my maple walnuts:

In a pan on low heat, put in raw walnuts (500g), a pinch of Himalayan salt, drop in a dollop of butter or coconut oil and 4 tablespoons of maple syrup.  Stir it well until it is mixed.  Spread coated walnuts onto a baking tray and put into oven at 50C for 20 minutes or until walnuts look dry.  Cool and store in an airtight container.

Toasted sesame seeds are simply just dry roasted on a pan on low heat.  It turns golden very quickly and needs to be removed from the pan.

Just before bed, I take my supplements for a good night’s sleep.

The Root Causes of Low Libido

Hormones play a big role in determining our sex drive, energy and mood.  Other confounding factors include communication, intimacy and emotional states.  Some research attribute 70% of hormonal imbalance to the food we consume.  Nutrition is a small hinge the swings big doors.

The hormones typically involved in libido are your thyroid hormones, adrenal hormones, as well as sex hormones estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. In Chinese Medicine, your kidney energy governs your libido and ability to maintain an erection. 

If you have sore breasts, are irritable, and having irregular cycles or more frequent cycles, your libido could drop.  These symptoms often indicate low progesterone.  Progesterone is the “connectivity” hormone.  Closeness with a partner has been shown to increase salivary progesterone levels.  Also getting good doses of vitamin C will help build this hormone.

Caffeine – whilst it gives you a boost to your short term energy production, is a stimulant that jolts your cortisol (stress hormone).  Some studies have shown caffeine to block progesterone from binding to its receptors.  Whilst it does not lower progesterone, it reduces the ability of the hormone to do its job by not being able to bind to the receptors.  Good substitutes for coffee are roasted dandelion root tea (which will also cleanse your liver), green tea or rooibos tea.

Alcohol consumption causes oxidative stress to the testicular leydig cells and leads to lower testosterone levels and it also increases estrogen levels, making a male more feminine.  In a man, high stress levels and poor eating habits can dampen kidney energy, hence causing an inability to maintain an erection.  Men need more zinc than women, so check those levels, and using herbs like damiana can also help with male libido. Using high antioxidant compounds like berries and herbs can help reduce oxidative stress.

Healthy communication, clean, good eating, de-stressing through prayers, meditation or yoga and regular exercise can be the answer to your low libido and bring you more fulfilling relationships.  Practising forgiveness and gratitude can only do you good.