Mondays, we build your grocery list with one food, focusing on this month’s main topic.
March is for talking Energy support and a reduction in fatigue. Today, we bring in some plant helpers. Add this one to your grocery list:
MORINGA POWDER.
For those who wish to know the ‘why’ behind this idea, I’ll give you three things to think about.
FOR THE LIVER SUPPORT
Moringa is a potent plant helper that wants to be best friends with your liver, nourishing her in order that she have the ingredients she needs at the ready to detoxify your body, and to help move inflammation out of the body. It’s been shown to help enhance your liver’s production of important enzymes needed in the processes of detoxification (1). Sign me up!
FOR THE MITOCHONDRIAL PIECE
Fatigue and low energy can show up differently for everyone. It is important to do some digging to figure out what’s going on behind your low energy levels - be it a blood sugar balancing piece, a hormonal imbalance piece, low mood, chronic fatigue syndrome, and on and on.
Common to all of these is high oxidative stress - that end result of low grade inflammation. Where does this oxidative stress do its damage? On your mitochondria - those little energy factories you have in each and every cell except your red blood cells. Providing antioxidants to the body will help in reducing the damage from oxidative stress. Moringa provides a rich array of important anti oxidants like quercetin and other polyphenols that have been well documented to help the work at hand. (2, 3)
FOR THE BRAIN + MOOD SUPPORT
In times of low energy and fatigue, our nervous system feels it quite keenly. There are some key players in moringa leaf powder that helps support the manufacture of serotonin - that feel good hormone.
Bonus here too, due to its high antioxidant content, moringa is a plant ally to the thyroid, who is the grand poobah in charge of your brain function + mood balancing work.
So think of moringa as a double-whammy when it comes to support the entire nervous system and your feeling body, including your emotions: she helps what ails it in helping to clean it up, but also supports the organs involved in maintaining good brain and mood function, making sure the system works better, too.
Moringa leaf is dried and ground into a powder.
Moringa powder is a native plant to warm climate zones: think India and Africa. This tree tolerates drought and sandy soils, hence its proliferation in these warm areas of the world.
Here in North America, you would typically find moringa leaf dried, and pulverized down into powder form. The easiest way to use it is to add 1/2 tsp to a smoothie, or your next elixir, your Hot Choc O’clock. If you are adding it to a heated dish, it’s best to add after taking the dish off of the heat and adding in your moringa last in order to preserve the nutrients found within.
This powder has a green taste - it doesn’t take much to garner some of the important properties of it! So start slow, and build up to 1/2 tsp or 1 tsp per day. Click here for a great round up of ideas on how to use it: I particularly like the idea of boosting a homemade pesto or chimichurri with some moringa powder.
Aiming for a return to energy vitality? Looking to let go of that persistent fatigue? Need some help in feeling real good?
Get in touch by clicking here. Let’s meet up to start drawing up your road map to support you in both quantity and quality of life.
*This is not medical advice.