Dr. Morgan Ramsay, ND

Getting my daily dose of nature🍁, hitting that 10,000 step goal 🏃🏼‍♀️and spending time with my some of my most loved 🥰
is an understatement!

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SAVE THE DATE! 🥳 Beyond thrilled to be running my first ever FREE live webinar all about diabetes! We'll discuss what diabetes and insulin resistance actually are, uncover the reason behind your symptoms, and explore the most effective strategies to get you to blood sugar success!

Invest this time for yourself and your health - JOIN ME at 6:30pm on August 25th!

Diabetes Debunked: How to Achieve Blood Sugar Success! A Live Webinar starting at Aug 25, 2020 @ 6:30 pm EDT hosted by Rooted Naturopathic Clinic.

Thrilled for this glowing mama-to-be 😍 Very happy to be stepping in for Dr. Katie while she's off on maternity leave and getting to know her little guy!

The countdown is on... only 4 weeks left for Dr. Katie!

Dr. Katie will be seeing patients until Sept 1st and then taking a short maternity leave with plans to be back in office by January 2021. Her August schedule is filling up quickly, so don't delay if you need to book an appointment!

If you'd like to schedule a visit with Dr. Katie before baby arrives, you can do so online through our website or by giving us a call

www.rootedinhealth.ca
705-792-6717

Something I find is so important to highlight, when teaching my patients how to make healthier food choices are NUTRITION LABELS! Most people are so hung up the “Calories” or “Fat” content in foods, that they overlook some of the other key players that are critical to consider, especially if you are looking to stabilize blood sugars!📉

Carbohydrates & Fibre: If you're working towards better blood sugar control, looking at Carbohydrates & Fibre are a MUST! When reading a nutrition label, take a look at the “Total Carbohydrate” and “Dietary Fibre” content of each serving you are eating. The lower the total carbohydrate number and the higher the fibre number, the less impact that food will have on your blood sugar overall. This goes hand-in-hand with lower-glycemic eating, as many refined, white carbohydrates (🥯🍩) have little to no fibre, whereas most complex carbohydrates come packed with natural fibres, buffering against spikes & crashes in our blood sugars.

SIDE NOTE: If looking for more fibre in your diet - the all-star I LOVE is psyllium 🤩. Research supports its ability to improve blood sugar markers & glucose metabolism, increase insulin sensitivity and even reduce BMI (Body Mass Index) in those with type 2 diabetes! Add it into smoothies, sprinkle on yogurt or 🥗, or just mix it in a bit of water & drink it fast if you’re forgetful like me 😆
PMID: 27733151

Protein🍗: The more protein something has, the more satisfied & energized you’ll be feeling throughout your day, helping to prevent post-meal cravings and “hangry” moments! Meeting protein targets can seem overwhelming, so make your food work for you 💪🏻💪🏻 - If on the go and grabbing a quick snack - aim for 10 grams of protein, to keep you from grabbing 🍭🍫just minutes later!

Serving size🥣: this is often ignored, as the majority of us will just fill whatever plate we’ve got and call that a “serving”. Often this means we are doubling, or even tripling our intake unknowingly, which can sabotage your goals! Next time you grab a packaged food, take the extra minute to see how your “serving” measures up.
*Disclaimer: serving size does not apply to almond butter 😏🙈

In my last post, I outlined “Glycemic Index” and top tips to increase your intake of “Low GI Foods” - but how does this really effect your daily diet? Even if you’re following these guidelines, is this really enough to positively impact your overall blood sugar control? 🧐

The short answer is YES 🥳 - increasing your intake of “good carbs” - fibres, complex grains & limiting simple sugars are easy swaps and will definitely work to better your overall health, digestion and energy levels!
The longer answer, especially for certain individuals who need to focus on their🩸sugar control a little more closely - those with diabetes, PCOS, insulin resistance - has a little more to it!

The GI is a great comparison of the potential of different foods to raise your blood sugar, but are all determined based on the same serving size, let’s say 50g. The problem here is that 50g could be much more or much less than what might be a typical “serving” of that particular food. The amount of total grams you are eating of carbohydrates in your meal or throughout your day, is key to consider when trying to lower your overall blood sugar & insulin levels. .
This is where Glycemic Load (GL) comes in - this calculation takes into account both the GI (QUALITY⭐️) AND the QUANTITY of carbohydrate in a serving of a certain food or meal. For a standard serving, GL’s are labelled: Low (GL20).
This is where it can get a bit tricky - some foods which are chock-full of nutrients, vitamins & encouraged to include in your diet, like 🍉for example, measure up with a "High" GI rating - 72 (which is the same as a typical 🍩!) HOWEVER, when factoring in a typical serving size of each, 🍉 clocks in with a GL of 8, and a 🍩 with a GL of 17. A 🍩 would provide more than double the amount of carbohydrates than watermelon (23g vs. 11g) per serving, and provide very little nutritional benefit, while significantly spiking our sugars (although donuts are 🤤🤤)! .
This is why it’s so important to not only consider the QUALITY of carbohydrates you're putting in your body, but also the QUANTITY 🍌🍞🍎🍕 .
Next week: ALL ABOUT NUTRITION LABELS 🤓

Inspired today to take the time to break down what “low glycemic” actually means (realized after scrolling through my Instagram that I throw that term around a lot 🙈), and how exactly this translates to the glycemic index of the foods we commonly eat. You may be familiar with these terms if you’ve ever had issues with insulin resistance, diabetes, weight loss, or are simply interested in how your diet affects your blood sugars & overall health. Part 1 of this tutorial series focuses on the Glycemic Index of common foods, and 3 simple health hacks we can follow to easily lower our overall glucose intake.

The term “Glycemic Index” refers to the blood sugar raising potential of a particular food, compared to a reference food which is generally pure glucose, clocking in with a whopping GI of 100 (🤯 - the reason why icing sugar & icing on cakes is often a no-go for me 😞). All carbohydrate containing foods have a GI rating, and are classified as High (>70), Medium (56-69) or Low (70 - think white 🍞, 🍝, packaged foods - 🍫🍬. In comparison, slowly digestible carbs (AKA complex carbs), usually have a GI of

EASY-PEASY PANTRY EDITION 😍! Full of whole foods, simple ingredients and downright delicious! I’ve been loving all the recipes I’ve trialled this week, and it’s helped me rediscover a lot of non-perishables I had hiding at the back of my cupboards 🙈

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The Reboot starts May 18th 🥳

Maybe you're...
- cooking up a storm during quarantine and looking for new inspiration
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My first foray into homemade nut milk was surprisingly easy and a huge hit around here! Our house is a big consumer of alternative milks, so I took this extra time luxury as an opportunity to try my hand at it! It really is so much creamier and tastier than store bought and adding just a pinch of sea salt & vanilla extract made it taste amazing, without any added sugars or unrecognizable additives usually found in grocery store varieties.

PRO TIP🚨: ALWAYS read ingredient labels and if the list is over 5 items or you can’t pronounce half of them - take a hard pass! 🙅‍♀️

In light of trying to use everything in my pantry at the moment, (and always trying to reduce waste in general) - I decided to use the almond & walnut pulp leftover from my milk to whip up some raw vegan 🥕🍰 energy balls!
The main reason I love any type of no-bake balls, is that they are so simple, and completely customizable to whatever you have lying around in your house!

These ones are: leftover nut pulp (approximately 2 cups) + 1/2 cup almond butter + 4 large shredded 🥕 + 1 cup roughly chopped walnuts + 4 tbsp maple syrup + 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut + 1/4 cup very questionable hardened raisins (really cleaning out my pantry here) + generous and unmeasured amounts of cinnamon, nutmeg + ginger
Simply combine everything together and form into 1 inch balls!
This made about 30ish, and whichever ones we didn’t eat yesterday (🙈), made their way into the freezer for later sweet-🦷 fixes!

This plant based queso dip has got me 🤤🤤 and inspired a healthier taco night in this household 🌮 I’ve recently become addicted to the GoodFoods Queso from Costco, and based on the only whole food ingredients list (no weird additives, ALL ones you can find at any grocery store and actually pronounce) - I thought I’d give it a whirl 👩‍🍳

This made a hefty amount (approximately 4 cups), but based on my consumption rate in the past few weeks (🙈), I have a sneaky feeling it’s not going to be an issue to finish!

Ingredients (I tried to be as precise as possible, but measuring isn’t my strong suit):
-1.5 medium-sized cauliflower, cut into florets
-3 red/orange bell peppers, cut into strips 🌶 (I only had one red + two orange, but these gave it a beautiful bright colour)
-1/2 red onion, quartered
-4 tbsp olive oil for roasting*
-1/2 cup cashew milk, unsweetened
-2-3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
-juice of 1/2 lemon 🍋
-1/4 cup nutritional yeast
-1/2 cup almond flour (for thickening)
-2 tbsp almond butter
-2 tbsp garlic powder
-2 tbsp ground cumin
-2 tbsp chili powder
-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
-1/2 tsp of Himalayan sea salt
-sprinkle of paprika to impress whoever your quarantining with 💅

Directions:
*Roast veggies at 425 F for 20-30 minutes until tender with 4ish tablespoons of olive oil (avocado oil would also work here)
*Throw everything into the blender and blend until completely smooth
*Optional add ins: fresh diced tomatoes, salsa, cilantro, pickled jalapeños (I diced and added these in for an extra kick🌶)

IT WORKED! I’m very pleasantly surprised and impressed with myself 🙌🏻😏 Disclaimer: consistency is not quite the same as GoodFoods (can that perfection really be recreated??), but taste is 💯! Interestingly, I also input the ingredients and amounts into one of my favourite food trackers - Cronometer - and per serving size (2 tbsp), the macros are almost identical to the original recipe (48 calories + 2g of protein per serving).
Calling this one a success story 💪🏻!!!

Wondering how to navigate CoVID as a person living with diabetes? Check out our April newsletter from MVNC to find out all the need-to-knows!

COVID and Diabetes and Join An Organic Farm Share

Coming in for a second trial of these Cinnamon-roll Protein Muffins! My first go around didn’t go quite as planned - the muffins were dense, cooked too long by a distracted baker👩‍🍳, and were only saved by the very generous amount of icing I put on top 🙈

Although it’s frustrating for things to not go as smoothly as we envision, without failure, we would never learn from our mistakes. It’s all about progress, not perfection, and without tackling this recipe again this morning, I wouldn’t have already been able to eat 3 of these cinnamon-filled, gooey-icing-topped bites of heaven 🤤

Cinnamon-roll batter - makes 18 little muffins:
-1 egg
-1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
-1/2 cup coconut oil
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/2 cup almond butter (or whatever nut butter you like - I find 🥜 can be overpowering)
-1/2 cup almond flour
-1.5 scoops vegan vanilla protein powder (I used you might have to adjust liquid ratios based on how absorbent your protein is)
-outrageous amount of cinnamon (it’s an addiction)
-1/2 tsp nutmeg

The most mouthwatering frosting (and dangerous to have leftover in the fridge😬):
-1/4-1/2 cup coconut butter (depending on desired thickness)
-1/4 cup unsweetened nut milk
-juice of 1/2 lemon (I love the tartness of this)
-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
-stevia to taste

Combine all dry and then all wet ingredients separately. Mix everything together and cook at 350 F for 10-15 minutes. WATCH CLOSELY 🤣 and while these delights are in the oven, combine all frosting ingredients on the stovetop. Drizzle or spoon liberally on top & sprinkle with cinnamon to make them 📸 ready!

The reason I love these muffins so much (and was determined to get them exactly right), is because they are only sweetened with apple sauce (

A big THANK-YOU to Alpha Science Labs for supporting and inspiring students at CCNM to become the best NDs they can be. Very grateful to have been awarded the Alpha Science Laboratories Prize for Excellence in Case Reporting during my clinical year, and be afforded the opportunity to try many of their amazing products! A shoutout to one of my favourite herbal blends - Reliqil - for promoting a state of serenity after busy days and getting me straight to sleep! 😴🙌🏻

Congratulations for being the recipient of the Alpha Science Award of Excellence in Case Reporting for the 2018-2019 Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine academic year.

We wish you all the very best in your practice!

Dr. Morgan Ramsay, ND updated their business hours.