I wanted to talk about resveratrol because, well hey, everyone loves a good glass of red wine, right? One of the first questions you probably have before starting a cleanse is, “Really?? Do I have to give up red wine??” And the answer is yes, ideally

Although, I’ve recently discovered a way to prepare it that makes it okay to enjoy on a cleanse, albeit in very minute dosages, for a therapeutic effect. I’ll spill the beans on how exactly to do this later on in this post.

Resveratrol is a plant compound that acts as a powerful antioxidant in our bodies. It’s not only found in grapes and red wine, but also in smaller amounts in blueberries, tomatoes, peanuts, dark chocolate, and apples.

Resveratrol Concentration in Grapes

The grape is an interesting fruit with the pinot noir grape being the ‘weakest’ grape that grows well in Oregon, Italy, and France (legendary here!), yet it has the highest antioxidant content, specifically resveratrol¹. Pinot noir is thought to be the healthiest of red wines.

Pinot Noir

Believe it or not, the weaker the grape, the stronger the antioxidant. In red wine, it’s pinot noir grapes. In terms of juice, it would be the Concord grape. They actually have one of the highest nutritional profiles but they are incredibly sweet too (which means high in sugar).

The way grapes mix their sugar and antioxidants makes our food choices a bit tricky. They’re super healthy, which is great. But it also means we need to be careful about how much we eat to find the right balance. So, when you’re grabbing that glass of red wine or a serving of grape juice, just keep in mind this mix of good stuff and things to be cautious about. It can help you make smarter and more balanced decisions for your diet.

Concord Grape Diet

Have you ever heard of the old grape diet? Where you basically eat nothing but grapes for three days…

Stay with me, as there actually might be something to this. When reading Genesis (the first chapter of the Bible), and in the biblical days to cleanse, they would basically not consume anything for the first 3 days. So you could do a grape juice fast for the first 3 days, along with water and green tea to help clean up your system (and also take in a ton of powerful antioxidants).

What Does Resveratrol Do?

Resveratrol may help women lose weight and maintain healthy estrogen levels^2 3. Estrogen dominance is a problem that can lead to gain weight, which can cause your body to produce more estrogen.

It basically becomes a  a vicious cycle of gaining weight and having high estrogen, which causes symptoms like breast tenderness, moodiness, depression, and anxiety. Causing you to feel like you’re all over the map… Can you relate? It is not a fun condition to be stuck in and resveratrol may be helpful with these symptoms.

Resveratrol in the Gut

So, what does it do for the gut?

Flavonoids are very important in keeping the gut mucosal membrane lining healthy⁴.

If the gut lining isn’t strong and healthy, it weakens the barrier, making it hard for the gut to protect the body from outside food. It’s crucial for the gut barrier to stay strong for optimal functioning.

Maintaining a Healthy Gut Lining

Stool Transit Time

Did you know that stool transit time can actually dictate the number of allergies you have? The less that you go, the more allergies you may have⁵. Interesting agreed?

The duration it takes for stool to move from the mouth to the anus (or anal transit time), is influenced by stool transit time. Understanding your transit time provides various insights into your body’s functions and conditions.

You Are What You Absorb

Now, resveratrol helps with keeping the gut lining integral. It’s actually imperative to it. In supplement formulas, I add in resveratrol all the time and I make sure people are getting it from their diet as well.

What’s even more important is that people are absorbing and digesting things well. We need to optimize the absorption capacity in our guts in order to really reap the health benefits of resveratrol in our food, drink, and supplements.

Food Hygiene 

Resveratrol is awesome to get from red wine, although the bacteria and fermentation products make it not-so-great on a cleanse. So how do we get around this?

Alternatively, we can use grapes, but we need to wash them well. I’m going to teach you how to wash them to reduce the bacterial load.

Now, I don’t want to get into the hygiene hypothesis… The thing is, this isn’t something you need to do long term, just until you establish a healthier barrier and a healthy microbiome. When the microbiome is functioning well it can tolerate more bacterial load. Makes sense, right?

So, we need to give our microbiome a chance to reset itself within the body, which could take 3-6 months, a year, or even 2 years… It depends how weakened it is and it depends on how compliant you are.

To Reset Your Gut, You Have 2 Options

1. You can reset it by a little wee bit at a time which takes a long time, OR…
2. You go all in! Change your practice step by step for the fast win.

   The second option makes more sense! Agreed?

   So, in order to reset the environment, we need to clear what is coming in, allowing the body to rebalance in its own natural way. When we allow it the space to do what it needs to do – that is digest, absorb and eliminate, we support this process that much more. 

   My favorite tool to do this with is Castor Oil Packs.

How Do Castor Oil Packs Help You Reset Your Gut?

1. Relaxation

Parasympathetic tone, practicing the pause. How do we get more of the relaxed state as opposed to the stressed state?

Castor Oil Packs are like the escape button for your nervous system, which is more related to the pack rather than the actual oil. That’s because when the pack sits on the skin, it stimulates receptors in the skin of the nervous system.

Did you know that tactile soft-touch actually helps to support that area⁷. This soft, pleasurable touch also stimulates hormones, like oxytocin – the love and connection hormone, as well as dopamine⁸ – the pleasure hormone of the brain. 

2. Inflammation & Alkalinity

Wherever there is inflammation there is acidity, so reducing inflammation increases alkalinity. The enzymes of our bodies cannot work without alkalinity. Our enzymes need proper pH to function well, and Castor Oil Packs may help support this environment and balance inflammation.

Moreover, Castor Oil has been shown to be as effective as capsaicin for pain relief (without the irritating effect)⁹.

3. Maintain Glutathione Levels & Support Detox Pathways

There are not many ways to get glutathione, our super important detoxifying compound. You can take glutathione supplements, but they haven’t been shown to be super effective. You can also get it from whey protein, but this is an issue for a lot of people with allergies and sensitivities. A third way to get it is from rooibos tea, green tea, or red raspberry leaf tea to improve glutathione in the gut.

Supplementation with N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) and magnesium can help with glutathione levels, however, most of us are already very deficient in magnesium so the body will first use the magnesium for what it needs, before converting it to glutathione. Sometimes it can be dose-limiting too, because of the potential laxative effect of magnesium.

IV and injection is another way of getting glutathione, but this requires going to a clinic every time, which isn’t very convenient, agreed?

A Castor Oil Pack worn on the liver may help with the recycling of glutathione. There was a study done on rat lenses where they put the lenses in a dish of glutathione solution, and one in a dish of Castor Oil. The glutathione levels were actually maintained BETTER in the Castor Oil solution¹⁰.

4. Support the regulation of bowels

Transit time is very important. Without a normal transit time, you may experience problems with your microbiome, allergies, and toxins recirculating in the body. Normal transit time for men is around 1.7 days, and for women it is higher at 2.3 days¹¹.

Why is it higher for women? Women have more hormones that play a role in their transit time. If progesterone levels are low, it can contribute to a slower transit time.  Castor Oil Packs are thought to help support regular movement of your bowels, which, in turn, may help your digestion transit times.

5. Break down Biofilm

For this reason, it’s super important to address our biofilm. There aren’t many natural substances that have the ability to break it down. Castor Oil is one of these natural substances, also helping to stimulate nitric oxide passageways!

And because nitric oxide is a gasotransmitter, which is basically a gaseous messenger molecule involved in signaling to open up blood vessels, it is believed to help balance inflammation. They’re calling it one of the newest anti-aging molecules. Red wine, grapes, and beets are all food sources of nitric oxide.

Did you know that you tend to go to the bathroom more often when you have higher levels of progesterone? Ladies, right before your period do you find that you are going to the bathroom more frequently? This is because your progesterone levels spike just before menstruation, causing your transit time to speed up.

Castor Oil Packs are such a simple practice that work on these 5 foundational functions…

1. Relaxation

2. Inflammation

3. Antioxidant status

4. The bowels

5. The microbiome

This supports everything, from absorbing, digesting, working well, and eliminating where it needs to. 

Get your own super easy, 2-step Queen of the Thrones® Liver Castor Oil Pack.

Gut Lining and Hormones

Resveratrol basically acts like an antioxidant that helps support the gut lining, and at the same time balances out hormones. Our gut lining is very dependent on our hormones, and resveratrol helps in the detoxification of estrogen.

When you have better-balanced levels of estrogen, you will have sufficient levels of progesterone that help you go to the bathroom well and maintain a regular transit time.

Dietary Intake of Resveratrol

1. Royal Red

How to Flash Pasteurize Red Wine:

Looking to enjoy your red wine in a healthier way? Here’s your Red Wine Recipe below! 

1. 1. 1 oz red wine
2. 4 oz boiling water
3. Throw in 5 ice cubes
4. Sip and enjoy!

   And there you have it,  a nice cider that I like to call it the Royal Red! Another option is to add carbonated water and ice for a spritzer type drink

Grape juice is another option for dietary intake of resveratrol. As mentioned before, Concord grapes have the highest antioxidant content. With grape juice though, water it down because it’s very sweet, therefore very high in sugar!

2. Grapes

Good ‘ole grapes are also a great way to get resveratrol into your system. But, remember what we talked about in regards to the fungus that they produce to protect themselves? We need to wash it off with a handy dandy acid-cleansing wash.

How to make an Acid-Cleansing Wash

You will need:

• 1 part white vinegar
• 1/4 part hydrogen peroxide
• 5 parts water
• 1 tsp baking soda

Step 1: Put grapes into a bowl.

Step 2: Add the mixture of liquids and drop in the baking soda. (You can also do this with any dried goods like rice, grains, and legumes.) This step takes off the bacterial load and grapes are super important to do this for.

So the next time you reach for your glass of red wine, I hope you will see it in a whole new light. 

Make sure to practice your Castor Oil Pack for Liver so you can help your body absorb the awesome benefits of resveratrol, and use these food hygiene tricks to limit the amount of bacterial load coming into your beautiful temple.

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