For the love of oats

Despite my love of blueberries I’m not a massive fan of superfoods because they aren’t super for everyone. We are all individual humans with individual needs and those fluctuate daily so its pointless to prescribe a one-size-fits-all approach. Even coffee is a superfood for some - full of antioxidants, but for others it would act like a toxin. The process I use and teach is completely individualised but my aim on here is to give information that is helpful to everyone.

So are there any superfoods that are good for just about everyone no matter their biochemistry?

Well in my opinion yes. Oats. If you know you have an intolerance to oats, even gluten free oats, then obviously this does not apply to you, but otherwise its a wise idea to make oats a regular part of your diet, especially if you have chronic illness. 

Oats seemingly have a billion benefits when you start to read up on them. At the superfood party oats really do appear to be the wallflower - they are completely neutral looking unlike all their very colourful exotic friends and yet they are not to be underestimated. Amongst the myriad of protective benefits they bring the main one I want to focus on is the strengthening aspect they bring to your nervous system. It is for this reason alone that I recommend them- they calm your nerves and mind and they promote restful sleep, something we can all benefit from with our ever-changing environments of stress. 

But to those with chronic illness, strengthening your nervous system is exceedingly helpful because that alone is one of the many ways to get back your health. Having a nervous system that is stuck in the sympathetic mode of fight/flight or freeze is the most likely the reason everything isn’t working in your body correctly. You can address the reasons why it is stuck as one path, but another path is in encouraging it to get back into balance by strengthening your nervous system and allowing it to move back into the parasympathetic mode (rest and digest).

Either way make oats your friend. And what is best, is their effects are cumulative, so make it a regular habit to grab for a bowl of porridge - I often like having mine in the evening.