The Coronavirus has amplified one major issue: proactive health is so important. Eating healthy, whole foods is the best way to give your body the nutrients it needs to boost immunity against disease. Exercising is the best way to keep your body toned and happy. But there are some extra steps you can take. The FASTer Way isn’t a diet, but there are foods that we avoid.

The FASTer Way program eschews gluten and dairy because these foods are shown to increase inflammation in the body and give you all kinds of discomfort in the gut. We see so many clients come to us after plateauing in their previous programs, and still suffer from joint pain and that bloated feeling. Dairy is a major no-no because it is inflammatory by nature. It disrupts many of your major systems and causes bloating, diarrhea and constipation.

But dairy has another troubling side effect that could be spoiling your mood during the COVID-19 pandemic: increased stress and anxiety. If you’re dealing with stress while stuck at home, you’re not alone. More than half of Americans alone are feeling anxious about the current situation, which is why we’ve provided podcasts and blogs like this one to help you get through it.

But if you are still on a dairy kick, maybe it’s souring you.

WHAT DAIRY DOES TO STRESS YOU OUT

The reason is because dairy not only wreaks havoc on your gut, it also can increase your adrenaline, reduce magnesium and alter your estrogen levels.

Why is that? Well, mostly because of what’s injected into cows. The artificial hormones and antibiotics that are meant to increase milk production can have negative effects when you drink them. Even if the milk you drink is certified non-GMO and hormone free, the rules and regulations to get that certification are flimsy.

The drop in magnesium is significant because it’s been shown to increase anxiety in the body. Magnesium is known as an anti-stress mineral and when it’s depleted, stress may go up.

Also, there’s the issue of dairy being cultured. When milk turns into cheese, bacteria break down proteins into biogenic amines. If you are intolerant of dairy, this breakdown can trigger protective histamines, which can aggravate digestion and cardiovascular and nervous systems. If you are susceptible, those histamines can increase your anxiety and disrupt your sleeping pattern.

You could also suffer from swelling, skin reactions and sinus issues like coughing and sneezing.

ALTERNATIVE CALCIUM SOURCES

Ridding your diet of milk is not an easy thing to do right away, but there are plenty of alternatives like almond, soy, cashew and oat milk. Oat milk is relatively new to the game but is a great additive for tea or coffee, staples of intermittent fasting. Oat milk also is high in iron so if you get your protein from places other than meat, it can supplement the iron you’re losing.

You might fear being without calcium. That’s what we’ve been told since we were kids right? Milk helps us build strong bones. But you can get plenty of calcium and other nutrients from vitamin-rich vegetables, fruits and greens. These foods can give you the calcium you need without the hidden stress on your body.

• Kale

• Oranges

• Sesame seeds

• Dried figs

• Almonds

• Oatmeal

The FASTer Way is all about total wellness, not just physical. The mental side of what we eat has a big effect on how we go about our days. We covered a really interesting topic a few weeks ago in our FASTer Way Podcast. The digestion process actually begins before we even eat because our brain triggers what our desires are. It’s worth a listen because changing our lifestyle habits begin with understanding how our body works. Dairy is something ingrained in us from a young age, but finding alternative sources for nutrients could be what’s holding you back from reaching your goals. And that can be stressful all in itself.

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