Hi Everyone,
Ask all the 4 – and 5-year-olds you know what Santa and Mrs. Claus eat. I’d like to know how they keep up with toy production and distribution without ankle, knee, hip, and back pain. The answer at Grounded Coffee Bar this morning was a USB port. Hmmmm.
For the rest of us, the research says fruit, vegetables, salmon and, for Mrs. Claus, to my surprise, hormone balancing.
Researchers found that estrogen and progesterone reduced the prevalence – the likelihood that inflammatory joint diseases like rheumatoid arthritis would become active.
I had not thought of this interaction, but it makes sense from a stress standpoint. Signaling from brain structures — the hypothalamus and pituitary — to the ovaries can become disrupted with stress loads. The bloodstream holds estrogen in proportion to progesterone. When progesterone drops, the body removes estrogens from the bloodstream to maintain a specific ratio with progesterone, storing them on a protein called sex hormone-binding globulin. When progesterone is too low, the brain tells the adrenal glands to make progesterone. This, however, stresses the whole body with elevations of the stimulating hormone cortisol. And this stress would let a weakened or defective gene become active.
Neurobiology of Aging – Academic Press
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/chapter/edited-volume/abs/pii/B9780443362958000031?via%3Dihub
Deadlines and Santa’s snoring may not bother Mrs. Claus, but the rest of us have to protect ourselves from stress.
I still want to know what the Clauses eat. The European Journal of Nutrition, December 2025 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-025-03846-z
They discussed how B vitamins lowered the rate of rheumatoid arthritis through methylation pathways. This is going to be vitamins that are in dark green vegetables.
B 12 Folates B 6 which is in Life Guard and Vessel Guard. And broccoli, kale, and dark lettuces.
We are getting a glimpse of how to protect joints and stay active. But what about the stress of besting Amazon for on-time delivery?
Mrs. Claus knows a thing or two about eating healthy, and this is how she manages stress and logistics.
Omega-3 fatty acids, which are high in salmon and Arctic char (it looks like a small salmon – tastes very good) supported mood regulation, memory, executive 
function and, in their words, global cognition. I think that means help with directions.
If you want a kid-friendly recipe for eating Salmon email back. My kids loved this when I made it.
The Stan store link below has a cookbook full of recipe ideas of what to eat between now and the holidays.
Let me know what the 4-5 year old detectives told you,
Happy Holidays,
Dr. McGuckin