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Can You Drink Too Much Water?

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“Stay hydrated, fam.” is a phrase I hear and see a lot. I don’t know when advocating for hydration became trendy, but at some point it did. I’m a fan of staying hydrated, and I think the reminders are helpful. Being dehydrated is very uncomfortable – not to mention potentially dangerous. However, sometimes people ask me about the other extreme: can you drink too much water?

Well, like I always say, the dose makes the poison. You can have too much of anything (stay tuned for a ‘can you consume too much protein post, coming soon), including water. In this post, I explain how and why you can drink too much water, and why it can be dangerous.

Water 101:

Water is essential for life. Our bodies are made up of about 55-70% water. It’s a vital component of cells, helps to regulate internal body protein, lubricates joints, acts as a shock absorber for the brain and spinal cord, aids digestion, and helps us flush away waste in the form of urination.

While the whole “Drink 8 8-ounce glasses of water per day,” things isn’t based on much evidence in particular, you should indeed drink enough water to quench your thirst and avoid dehydration.

The exact amount varies from person to person, and there are actually very few recommendations made by health organization that specifically state the amount needed per day, but according to the Institute of Medicine, it’s generally thought that males need 16 cups of water a day, and adult females need about 11 cups per day.

This can include water intake from foods (such as fruits and vegetables), as well as beverages (and yes, you can include coffee and tea in your intake tallies).

Again, the exact amount of water needed varies person to person, day by day, but ample water consumption is important to avoid dehydration.

Dehydration can occur if you lose more water than you take in, and can lead to confusion, fainting, electrolyte imbalance, rapid heartbeat, improper kidney function, and death.

Why Too Much Water is Dangerous: Hyponatremia

In the same way that too little water can lead to electrolyte imbalance, too much water can also lead to electrolyte imbalance.

The most common electrolyte disorder is low blood sodium – a condition known as hyponatremia.

Sodium is an electrolyte found mostly outside the cells, and its balance is important for maintaining blood pressure, and normal nerve, muscle, and tissue function.

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What is Chlorpyrifos? Is Chlorpyrifos dangerous? Here’s what you need to know about the most widely-used insecticide in the US

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Hello friends! Today I’m combining my  environmental health science and nutrition backgrounds to chat about pesticides – specifically chlorpyrifos. You may have heard of chlorpyrifos. It’s been the news cycle a lot the past couple of years. Long story short, it was supposed to be banned, and then the ban got delayed, and now we’re still waiting for the ban to go through. But let’s back up – what is chlorpyrifos? Is it dangerous? 

What is chlorpyrifos?

Chlorpyrifos is a broad-spectrum, chlorinated organophosphate pesticide (aka a chemical compound) commonly used for pest control on crops, animals, and in buildings. Chlorpyrifos was first introduced by DowDuPoint Chemical Company in 1965, and has a variety of registered food and non-food applications.

Chlorpyrifos is considered the most widely used insecticide in the United States.

Notably, chlorpyrifos is used as a pesticide on a variety of food crops, including many fruits, vegetables, grains, and nut trees.

 It also has plenty of non-food uses, such as application to golf course turf, industrial sites, greenhouse production, farms, woods, and is often used in residential pest-control (it’s common in roach and ant bait products). It’s also been used as a public health-based application for mosquito-controls (most often in situations where the benefits of broad application outweigh the risks).

Is Chlopyrifos Dangerous?

Yes, chlorpyrifos can be harmful to human health. How exactly? Bare with me through some long scientific lingo and we’ll get to the facts soon, I promise. 

Chlorpyrifos is classified as an organophosphate pesticide. Organophosphates inactivate the enzyme cholinesterase, which is responsible for deactivation of the nerve signaling protein acetylcholine, which leads to a buildup of acetylcholine, which over time  causes overactivation of nerve targets, including those of the heart, brain, and digestive system, among others. 

Overstimulation of these nerve targets is associated with nausea, dizziness, confusion, loss of muscle control, and death. It’s similar in chemical structure as some of the nerve agents used in WWII. It is considered a neurotoxicant.

Within the past decade, concern has risen about adverse health outcomes associated with chlorpyrifos from not only shorter, higher levels of exposure, but also longer-term lower levels of exposure. 

In the early 2000s, scientific evidence began to suggest a link between chlorpyrifos use and a variety of adverse developmental outcomes. Perhaps most famously, researchers from th Child Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health (HUGE shout out to the alma matar!) found prenatal exposure (from residential environments – ie, spraying for bugs and pests) to chlorpyrifos causes structural changes in brain development.

The researchers at Mailman continued to study the chemical at levels of what wound be considered typical to high exposure, and found that prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos is associated with deficits in working memory and lower IQ at age 7. Yes, that’s right. This chemical can have long-term cognitive impacts.

CCEH scientists have also shown that exposure to chlorpyrifos is also linked to lower psychomotor developmental index scores, and lower mental development index scores in children, and their research suggests boys may be more vulnerable than girls.

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Gluten-Free Vegan Buckwheat Waffles

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Holy cow! I haven’t posted a recipe in a minute (well, since this epic vegan chocolate pudding recipe a couple of weeks ago). Honestly, I just haven’t been cooking a lot of new or creative things lately during this crazy move/transition time. My days have been busy and my mind has been preoccupied so lately meals and snacks have been reliable, simple, quick-to-prepare old standbys. But I was going through my computer’s desktop and found a folder of photos of these gluten-free vegan buckwheat waffles I took over a month ago (back in Wisco) and remembered I snapped pics with the intention of posting the recipe, but never got around to it!

So here we are! Gluten-free vegan buckwheat waffles. This is my go-to buckwheat waffle recipe. I use a combination of buckwheat and oat flours for these waffles. I have found using only buckwheat flour yields dense, bitter waffles. Oat flour helps make the waffles lighter, fluffier, and my neutral in flavor, while keeping them gluten-free (if that’s important to you).

Applesauce adds moisture and a hint of sweetness. If you don’t have apple sauce, canned pumpkin puree should also work, although the flavor will be a bit less sweet, and a bit more umami. But maybe that’s what you’re into. Savory gluten-free vegan buckwheat waffles with a bowl of veggie chili perhaps? Sign me the frick up!

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How Sleep Impacts Hunger and Nutrition

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I am writing this post at 10:00pm on a Saturday night. It’s way past my bedtime, but between coming down with a cold and feeling particularly anxious lately, I find myself up late, creating content. And what better nutrition question to write about than how sleep impacts hunger and nutrition!

I remember learning about how sleep impacts hunger and fullness cues, and overall health during my MS in human nutrition program. One of my professors did a lot of sleep research, and she was very passionate about the topic. I always found it kind of funny to learn about the importance of sleep and the detrimental impacts of stress in very stressful, time-consuming, sleep-depriving programs.

Anyways, today we are going to chat answer questions about sleep, and how sleep impacts hunger and fullness cues, and overall wellbeing. Grab some cozy PJs and get ready to read!

*Disclaimer: As always, this is general information intended for healthy adults to gather general information about what to eat (and to avoid) when you have diarrhea. Your needs may vary based on medical status, lifestyle, or life-stage. Please never replace generalized health information you’ve read online with individualized clinical care.

How Sleep Deprivation Messes with your health: It’s all about the hormones

Sleep is the natural, reversible loss of consciousness. And it’s super important to maintaining homeostasis. In addition to allowing your body time to repair itself, sleep supports growth and development, proper immune function, and plays a large role in regulating pathways that affect the central nervous system and metabolism.

Poor sleep quality or sleep deprivation influences the body’s neuroendocrine and stress responses (many believe this is through the body’s hypothalmic-pituitary-axis, or HPA for short). This means, it regulates a lot of hormones related to stress and subsequently metabolism.

Sleep and Cortisol

Sleep deprivation can increase your body’s level of cortisol – a stress hormone. Cortisol can play a large role in regulating other hormones, including those related to appetite and reward systems (more on that below).

Elevated cortisol levels have been shown to increase intake of highly palatable foods, and encourage overeating by influencing the brain’s reward systems.

Excessive cortisol levels may send your body into a “flight-or-fight” mode, and shut down any unessential functions. This includes things like digestion and reproduction.

So, if your cortisol levels are high, due to a lack of sleep, and/or other life . stressors, you may experience some digestive issues, including slower gastric emptying, or acceleration of intestinal transit (meaning it impacts the speed at which your food gets through your GI tract and into the toilet).

How Sleep Impacts Hunger and Fullness Hormones:

Sleep helps you regulate hormones that impact your appetite. If you want a more detailed refresher on hormones that regulate hunger and fullness cues, check out this post about them.

Otherwise, know this: When you are sleep deprived, the level of ghrelin (the hormone that signals to your body that you are hungry) in your body increases. This means, you may feel hungrier if you didn’t sleep enough.

I personally have experienced ravenous hunger upon extended stints of inadequate sleep, and maybe you have too. Whether I’m traveling for days on end, am trying to truck through finals week, or for whatever reason, have several nights in a row where I’m just not sleeping well, I notice I feel much snackier, and this is likely because my homeostatic control of ghrelin is a little off.

But it’s not just ghrelin that’s thrown off. Leptin, the hormone that makes you feel full, is decreased with sleep deprivation. That means, not only are you hungrier if you don’t sleep enough, you’re also less likely to feel satiated.

The increase in ghrelin and decrease in leptin brought about by sleep deprivation may have a direct impact on how much you eat.

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Back to School Vegan Eats and Life Updates

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Hello internet friends! Welcome to another recent vegan eats post (a back to school vegan eats, to be exact) where I show you some things I’ve been noshing on lately, give random life updates, and give you my hot take on new products I’ve tried.

I’m writing to you from my futon in my wee little studio; Millie is curled up on top of multiple pillows at my side. I’m watching YouTube, wrapping up some work, and trying to relax after a crazy week.

The past couple of weeks in general have been full of surprises, highs and lows. I feel like I can’t even process everything that’s happened. Less than a month ago I was home in Wisconsin, living a cozy familiar life, enjoying tons of laughs, hugs, meals, and sunshine with all of my closest friends and my family.

Now, literally everything is different, and I am just starting to meet new people, and just starting getting to know this new place while navigating a whole new work and study space. Everything still feels so unfamiliar. Eep! Life’s adventures are crazy. Thank goodness for my adorable, loving dog.

Adulting is hard! Self-doubt can be paralyzing! Anxiety is annoying! Decisions are tough! And the older I get, the more homesick I am! Oh, the struggles of change!

Also unsettling: there was a local shooting this week. It was way, way too close to home to not shake me up a bit. Yikes.

I just feel like my anxiety has been rearing lately. Which is why this weekend, I’m planning some down time, which will include lots of mommy/Millie time, a little blogging, junky TV, and some other content creation.

I have so much to be thankful for. I truly do. I just need some time to process my thoughts and settle into a comfortable routine. I’ve found that when I don’t have a routine, I really feel….off. So once I have settled into a weekly rhythm, I am sure things will feel more normal.

Now that I’ve blabbed my life at you, let’s chat about vegan eats. To be honest, I haven’t been taking many food photos lately, and food has been feeling pretty whatever these days.

After my stomach issues, my appetite has been just…different. I want a lot of simple foods and have been very much eating to get by for energy and less for enjoyment, and haven’t really been thinking about documenting eats for the blog.

But here’s what I have documented, and I hope you enjoy.

Let’s get into it!

Peanut Butter Sandwiches

‘Tis the season! Haha. Back to school means back to packing lunches. Until I’m more in my groove, I’m very into quick-to-pack easy and reliable lunch options. Which means a lot of peanut butter on Whole wheat bread with super exciting sides like bananas, apples, baby carrots, nuts and granola bars. I’m five years old when it comes to my school lunches, and proud of it.

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What To Eat (and to avoid) When You Have Diarrhea

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Hey everyone! How are you poo-in’? Sorry, I couldn’t resist a poop pun. Not that you asked, but ever since I ate a wonky Subway while road tripping about two weeks ago things have been um…loose for me. Thus, I thought a post about diarrhea, and specifically what to eat (and to avoid) when you have diarrhea, could be helpful or useful to everyone because the reality is, we all have the runs from time to time.

I’ve been implementing several of these tactics into my routine since the Subway incident. If you want to know just how ruthless this bout of diarrhea has been for me, let’s just say, I had a full adult “blowout” at the grocery store the other day. Yup. It was messy. Like, dripping down my legs messy. And the craziest part was, I didn’t even realize it was happening until I felt the cold trickle down my leg and abandoned my cart full of bananas to inspect the situation in the lady’s room.

Well now. I don’t know what else to say except that you probably didn’t want to know that, but now that you do, let’s just move past this awkwardness and read about what diarrhea is, and what you can eat and do and avoid when you have diarrhea.

*Disclaimer: As always, this is general information intended for healthy adults to gather general information about what to eat (and to avoid) when you have diarrhea. Your needs may vary based on medical status, lifestyle, or life-stage. Please never replace generalized health information you’ve read online with individualized clinical care.

First of all, what is diarrhea?

Well, I’m glad you asked. Diarrhea is defined by loose, watery stools three or more times a day. Diarrhea can be further categorized as acute, persistent, or chronic.

Acute diarrhea typically lasts a day or two and goes away on its own. Persistent diarrhea lasts anywhere between 2-4 weeks. And chronic diarrhea typically lasts over 4 weeks, but may come and go.

Other symptoms often related to diarrhea include cramping, an urgent need to go to the bathroom, abdominal pain, and nausea. You may experience all, none, or some of these symptoms.

What Causes Diarrhea?

Many things may cause diarrhea, including food allergies and intolerances, foodbourne illness, viral infections, bacterial infections, bowel disorders including IBS, IBD, Crohn’s disease and colitis, and parasites.

Anxiety may also lead diarrhea by making IBS symptoms worse.

Why is Diarrhea Dangerous?

All poop jokes aside, diarrhea can be dangerous, and is the second leading cause of death in children under 5 in developing countries.

Even in developed countries, diarrhea often leads to dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, both of which can be serious and dangerous. Electrolytes are essential minerals that regulate blood pressure, muscle contractions, and many other bodily functions, and electrolyte imbalance puts the body at risk of heart coma, seizures, heart palpitations, and even death.

Furthermore, diarrhea may cause nutrient malabsorption. Because food is moving through the intestines at such a rapid pace, the body may not be able to absorb enough nutrients from the food consumed, putting individuals at risk of becoming malnourished.

What To Do When You Have Diarrhea:

If you have diarrhea, there are many things you can do to make yourself feel better, or at the very least, avoid dehydration, and/or making your diarrhea worse. Read on for a quick list of things to do when you have diarrhea!

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Climate Change and Wildfires: How are they connected?

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Hello! Given that wildfires have been all over the news lately, I thought they would make a good topic for a blog post. Specifically, we are going to discuss what ingredients are necessary for wildfires to start, and how climate change and wildfires are connected.

Wildfires have been increasing in the Western US since the 1980s. While there are normal fluctuations in wildfires cycles and climate patterns like El Nino which may impact wildfire frequency and intensity, it is clear that they are increasing.

Projections suggest that climate change will increase wildfire frequency and areas burned moving forward. 

Ingredients for a Wildfire:

Before we dive more into wildfires and how climate change exacerbates conditions for wildfires to ignite or spread, it’s first important to understand the ingredients for wildfires. 

The main ingredients needed for a wildfires include:

  • Availability of dry vegetation (“dry fuel”)
  • Hot and dry wind
  • And human or natural fire ignition
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The Whole30 Diet: Is Whole30 good for you? What does the science say about Whole30?

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Hey there friends! It’s been a minute since I wrote a science/nutrition type post. Life has been crazy and all over the place. But let’s not dwell upon that. Let’s talk about the Whole 30 diet. A lot of people ask me about Whole 30. But what is the Whole 30 diet? Is Whole 30 Good for you? Today, we will look at the science behind the Whole30 diet?

PS: Video version at bottom of post or watch here.

What is Whole30?

I never learned about the Whole 30 diet in my masters of nutrition program, nor in my undergraduate nutrition classes. The Whole 30 diet is not included in my Clinical Nutrition textbooks, nor is it in my nutritional biochem textbook (granted, these books are a couple years old, but still). 


So, I turned to the internet to find see what was out there about Whole30.

I couldn’t find any scientific studies on Whole30 on PubMed nor Google Scholar.

Thus, I turned to regular Google. According to the Whole30 official website, Whole30 is a 30-day diet that emphasizes whole foods and the elimination of sugar (real or artificial, including maple syrup, agave, coconut sugar, date syrup, Splenda, Stevia, etc) alcohol, grains including wheat, corn, rice, millet, etc, legumes of all kinds (ie: beans, peanuts, and peas), soy, dairy, and carrageenan, MSG, and sulfites. 

The Whole30 program also forbids consuming baked goods, treats, or junk foods made with “approved” ingredients, as well as stepping on the scale or measuring one’s body during the 30 days. 

According to the website, you must completely adhere to the full program “exactly as written 100% for the full 30 days.” If you have any “slip ups,” (even a bite of pizza) you “have” to start over again on Day 1.

Whole30 is also a lifestyle brand, of sorts. The website offers a couple Whole30-related books, and seems to work with brands on “Whole30-approved” certifications for certain products.

What Does Whole30 promise?

The Whole30 website claims that completing the Whole30 program will lead to “stunning, life-changing results.” According to their website, Whole30 can cure digestive ailments, seasonal allergies, skin issues, inflammation, and improve your immune system.

The Whole30 also advertises itself as a “nutritional reset” to help you “end” unhealthy cravings and habits. 

There are no links to any scientific studies to support these claims on the Whole30 website. There are, however, links to Whole30 books available for purchase, written by the Whole30 founders.

Who Designed Whole30?

According to the Whole30 website, the diet was founded by Melissa Hartwig Urban, who obtained a sports nutrition certificate from ISSN (according to her LinkedIn page). ISSN is an online nutrition certificate site,sponsored by Bayer, bioPro, CBD+oil, Muscletech, and many other companies. 

I can’t speak about the quality of the program as I have never taken the exam.

What Does the Science Say About Whole30?

As I alluded to above, I couldn’t find a single scientific studies on Whole30 and the diet’s impact on health on PubMed nor Google Scholar, nor did I ever learn about it in any academic nutrition setting. It’s not in any nutrition textbook I own, etc.

 So, every health claim made by the Whole30 website lacks scientific data. Normally, when researching a diet or trend, I try to weigh the evidence and sift through the science available to determine the validity of claims made. However, in this case, all I can say is, there is no evidence to support any health benefits of the Whole30.

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The Best Vegan Chocolate Pudding

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Looking for the best vegan pudding recipe of all times? You’re in the right place. This pudding is 100% vegan, easy to make, naturally sweetened, and contains only a handful of ingredients.

Bonus: this vegan pudding is actually pretty darn good for you! The pudding is rich in protein, calcium, iron, and magnesium, thanks to the tofu and cocoa powder.

This pudding is both nourishing and tastes decadently delicious, making it a perfect anytime treat. Eat it for breakfast with nuts and chopped fruit for some quality fuel, or top it with some coconut whipped cream or non-dairy whipped topping for a luscious dessert.

This pudding is actually a refreshed version of the original “Best Vegan Chocolate Pudding” recipe from yesteryear, which is also featured in my ebook. The main differences: I swapped white sugar for dates, added some salt for a better balanced pudding, and nixed the cornstarch because I don’t find it necessary.

The result: creamy, dreamy, naturally sweetened vegan chocolate pudding.

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Recent vegan eats & why I haven’t been online much lately

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Hey internet friends! How are you? You probably didn’t even notice, but I took a couple weeks offline. In addition to taking two weeks off blogging, I spent some time off instagram and Facebook, etc. My mental health hasn’t been the greatest lately, and I’ve been super busy with life things, and the internet wasn’t serving me in any way, shape or form.

I don’t know why I’ve been in such a funk lately. Well, actually, I do. Lots of life changes. But the internet hasn’t been making me feel great. I feel sad or unsatisfied on Facebook and Instagram lately, caught deep in games of comparison, while my follower count continues to drop for whatever reason, which all is just blah and unimportant and un-useful to putting me in a better mood.

All that to say, for whatever reason, I just haven’t been feeling the internet lately, so I took some time off. In addition to a mental funk, I’ve had pretty horrible anxiety, my sister had a baby, I drove for over 24 hours in a single week to a strange new place, and I’ve spent a lot of time feeling homesick, old, broke, sad, and inadequate, while questioning all of my life choices. Shout out to my friends and family who have listened to me whine or sob this past week. You’re all the best. I’m a big homesick baby!

But I’m back to share some recent vegan eats in today’s post, and have a yummy pudding recipe and Whole30 post lined up for later this weekend/early next week.

Before I jump into the eats, here’s a single photo of my new nephew at 12 hours old. Wow. Life is crazy. Also, I’m old. Wow. What a wee little guy:

Now onto the food. Going over these photos I realized how all over the place I’ve eaten lately. Lots of meals out with friends in Milwaukee, and lots of meals eaten the road during multiple days of road trips. Plenty of highs and lows along the way.

Old me who was overly focused on eating balanced meals 99% of the time would have been stressed out by the irregularity of meals, and would have felt unsatisfied eating protein bars and fruit and Taco Bell and random unglamorous food just having to go with the flow for days on end. Today’s me cares less about having each meal be extravagant and/or taste amazing is more focused on eating well most of the time, using food to fuel my life, enjoying meals out with friends and family, and keeping in mind that big picture eating patterns are more important than occasional choices that are ‘less than healthy’ or ‘ideal’ here or there.

Life ebs and flows! Go with it! Now on to the eats:

Beans and Barley Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burrito

I went to Beans (yes, again) with my friend Eileen from grad school who also happens to be from Milwaukee. This was delicious. A must-have at Beans and Barley! I swapped tortilla chips for salad because my body needed veggies after a carb-heavy day.

There was also house-made guacamole and salsa on the side. All this for $7! Beans, you da best!

Whole Foods Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

This was a post-Beans treat. We finished our burritos around 8, and it was a Sunday, and that point in the night, they were low on gluten-free and vegan dessert options. Thus, we strolled to Whole Foods and got random desserts.

I gotta say, this exceeded my expectations! I really liked it! The crust could have been better (like a graham cracker crust instead of an oat crust), but overall, delish!

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