Makes 12 buns
240 g ( 8 1/2 oz / 2 cups) buckwheat flour
200 g (7 oz / 2 cups) almond meal
3 tablespoons golden flaxseed meal
3 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
125 ml (4 oz / 1/2 cup) extra virgin olive oil
250 ml (8 ¾ fl oz / 1 cup) almond milk or rice milk
60 ml (2 fl oz / ¼ cup) organic maple syrup or honey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
250 g (8 ¾ oz) blueberries (fresh or frozen) or raisins if you want to go traditional
Melted dark chocolate for piping crosses (use 80% dark chocolate or make your own from my Healthy Baking Cookbook)
Method
PREHEAT your oven to 160°C fan forced (320°F).
COMBINE buckwheat flour, almond meal, cinnamon, flaxseed and baking powder in a bowl.
COMBINE olive oil, almond milk, maple syrup and vanilla into a separate bowl.
ADD the wet ingredients to the flour mix.
MIX through gently until a sticky dough forms. What will happen is that the dough will thicken and absorb all the moisture from the almond milk as it rests. I normally like to rest my dough for 5 – 10 minutes before adding blueberries.
ADD blueberries and give the dough one more brief mix – it should be lovely and sticky with the blueberries distributed throughout. Now remember you can use both fresh or frozen blueberries to make these buns.
SCOOP out into rounds using an ice cream scoop onto a lined baking tray.
BRUSH the top with a little extra almond milk.
BAKE for 35 – 45 minutes until cooked through and golden brown.
COOL and pipe over the crosses using melted dark chocolate.
The review will be led by the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Professor Brendan Murphy, and be supported by an advisory panel of experts including naturopath and Associate Professor of Public Health, Jon Wardle from the University of Technology Sydney. The CMO’s review will assess additional available evidence for natural therapies, undertake public consultation and provide advice to Government on the eligibility of certain natural therapies for a subsidy through the private health insurance rebate🍃
We will continue to keep you informed as the review progresses.
Have you ever struggled to get up on a Monday morning? The despair as you hear the alarm going off, the temptation to hit ‘snooze’ multiple times … we’ve all felt it. But did you know that “Mondayitis” is actually a scientifically recognised phenomenon?
Your Body on Different Time Zones
The technical term for “Mondayitis” is ‘social jetlag’, a phrase used by researchers to describe the mismatch between your body’s internal clock, and that of your work hours and social life. Like travel -related jetlag, social jetlag results from the different “time zones” between your weekend and working week.[1]
Like travel -related jetlag, social jetlag results from the different “time zones” between your weekend and working week.[1]
Think about it: whilst we normally follow some kind of routine for work and sleep during the week, Friday and Saturday are when late nights with friends or Netflix binges occur. Staying up late then skews your normal sleep and wake times by several hours compared to during the week.
Adjusting your sleep, wake and even meal times each weekend has a similar effect on your body to taking a trip into a different time zone. Come Monday morning, you re-enter the old time zone dictated by your work schedule, experiencing the fatigue, sleepiness, impaired concentration and irritability that you feel after returning from a trip – a classic case of “Mondayitis”!
Social Jet Lag – A Cause of Disease
Whilst it would be easy to brush social jetlag off as an annoying part of modern life, it’s actually associated with an increased risk of developing heart disease,[2] obesity,[3] and diabetes.[4]
Whilst it would be easy to brush social jetlag off as an annoying part of modern life, it’s actually associated with an increased risk of developing heart disease,[2] obesity,[3] and diabetes.[4] This is because social jetlag disrupts your body’s natural circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle which regulates your sleep and wakefulness, and governs many bodily processes essential for good health.[5] These effects on your body are independent of how many hours you sleep,[6] indicating that sleep regularity is as important as sleep duration for good health
Too Bright to Sleep, Too Dark to Wake
If you may need to address to the effects social jetlag are having on your health, it is imperative you understand how your modern lifestyle may already be impacting your circadian rhythm. As your genes have evolved to rise and set with the sun, your circadian rhythm may already be out of balance from being exposed to artificial indoor light during the day, and blue light for several hours after sunset from digital technology. Then, once the weekend hits, and the days and nights get later again, social jetlag is exacerbated even further, alongside its adverse health consequences.
Come to the Dark Side
There is no going back to a time before technology, and most of us probably wouldn’t want to. Therefore, to avoid social jetlag as much as possible, you can look after your circadian rhythms with some simple interventions:
Keep regular hours: Plan to sleep between 7 and 9 hours each night and minimise variation in sleep time between weekdays and weekends. Reducing the “time zone” difference between your work and social life will reduce the incidence of social jetlag and its adverse consequences.
Keep night-time light levels low: Use dimmer switches or floor lamps, avoid using screens an hour before bedtime, invest in blackout curtains and ban devices from your bedroom to assist your circadian rhythm in normalising as much as it can, reducing your risk of marked “Mondayitis”.
Get some herbal help: If you’re struggling to feel sleepy, or needing to retrain your body clock, try the herbs california poppy, zizyphus or lavender, which promote the activation of GABA (gamma-Aminobutyric acid), a calming neurotransmitter. A Healthcare Practitioner can help choose the right herbal combination for you.
Manage fatigue: Whilst social jetlag may be inevitable at some points, it may mean you need an energy boost to get you through the day. For this, consider using coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), which will support cellular energy production and therefore combat fatigue.
Come Back to the Present
Social jetlag can be a part of modern life, and it’s exacerbated by the fact many of our circadian rhythms are already out of balance. If you commonly experience those classic Mondaytitis symptoms, consider how you could minimise the impact of social jetlag by implementing the lifestyle and supplemental interventions above. If you can make your sleep and circadian rhythm a priority, you’ll not only start the week feeling fresh, but also improve your health long-term.
Check out this awesome, short video by my personal physician, Dr. Albert Mensah of Mensah Medical, about inflammation and the effect diet has on your child’s gut!
Do you wonder why your child is sluggish with a foggy brain, lack of energy, and defiant behavior?
Diet has a tremendous impact on how your child behaves because the processed foods you feed them lead to cognitive intoxification.
If you fill a tube with water then add sugar, you begin the recipe for the production of alcohol.
All you need is yeast and guess what? Yeast line the gastrointestinal tract and are often out of control in ADHD kids.
With sugar and water, yeast begins to ferment, which is how alcohol is made.
When this happens, the yeast produce toxins that affect your child’s brain, which then lead to irregular behavior, specifically problems with hyperactivity, an inability to concentrate, emotional disruption, and defiant behavior. And with these sugar highs, come crashing lows that look like depression and fatigue.
Please understand processed comfort foods such as burgers with fries, pizza, chicken nuggets, Oreo cookies and Ben & Jerry’s affect every aspect of your child’s life including mood, behavior and perception.
We see this in infants, toddlers and teenagers alike.
I want to encourage you to reconsider the foods your child is currently eating and how those foods affect their behavior and perceptions.
Diet DOES make a difference in your child’s ability to think, feel and act in a healthy way.
If you’re tired of chasing your child around screaming at them to behave, please take a look at their dietary choices.
What did your child just eat?
What they ate has a tremendous impact on their brain because tonight’s dinner may be tomorrow’s anxiety and disruption for you.
Surprisingly, fatigue, muscle cramps, headaches and difficulty sleeping are common signs of magnesium deficiency in both adults and children. Pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) and mood disorders including anxiety, depression, and constant stress are all signs and symptoms associated with poor stores of magnesium.
Read more to find the benefits and the best ways of supporting your magnesium levels. https://bit.ly/2ufQ1w6