2022: Update on Fats
The latest research shows adding saturated fats to your diet can actually lower inflammation and cardiovascular disease. Know which are safe!
All posts tagged: Wellness
How to protect yourself from coronavirus and flu.
Updated 1.2022Now that COVID-19 is part of our reality — when I first wrote this in early March, there were less than 10,000 total US cases. Now, we’re over 60M MILLION infected, (worldwide 300M), with over 5.4 million deaths worldwide as of January 2022. There are things you can do to protect yourself. Experts say that it’s inevitable that 60 to 70% of us will experience this virus in one variant or another. The one thing within your power is to bolster your immune system and prepare for it. NOW. Not when you get sick. My advice is to be in the best shape possible. Most people who have died are elderly AND have what healthcare calls “co-morbid” conditions: meaning they have a chronic illness AND they have come down with COVID-19. One example is research is beginning to demonstrate very low D3 levels = increased severity of illness. See article here for more. Here are ways to boost immunity. Keep in mind this is an ever evolving list but I am updating it with …
What hunger REALLY means.
One of the things I teach when I do my Food As Medicine Classes is that hunger doesn’t just mean you’re hungry, it means MUCH more. Your body is giving you a signal it wants MACRO and MICRONUTRIENTS! In fact, I use this slide: An article in a recent Huffington Post was so well written, I’m going to link it below. Please read it. It hopefully will change the way you look at junk food. And it explains why you can eat a large meal of junk and still be hungry! Here’s Why You Don’t Feel Full After Eating Junk Food You can eat an entire sleeve of Oreos or a bag of Hot Cheetos and still not feel satiated. It’s because your body knows things your brain doesn’t. By Katy Severson 03/05/2019 09:25am ET You’ve just eaten 10 Taco Bell tacos and a frozen Mountain Dew and you feel… suspiciously still hungry. You’ve consumed about 1,880 calories, but your body isn’t satisfied. What’s happening? Studies show that satiety, the mechanism that stops us from …
The Right Receipt!
Last week we were in Denver to see my son. My son and husband had lunch together, and our son wanted to take him to a local restaurant that he liked. I loved his choice for so many reasons: 1. It was a great restaurant that cooked local, often organic food. (they do pay attention when I talk!!!) 2. It provided them with low carb options for a lunch 3. It gave me an idea for a post. WIN-WIN-WIN! Here’s what amazed me today as I scanned in receipts. THEIR RECEIPT GAVE THEM THE NUTRITION INFORMATION FOR THEIR MEALS! Why doesn’t every restaurant do this? How cool is this? My only comment is most people probably don’t want a 2,500/day calorie intake — but in Denver, which is one of the healthiest cities, it may be accurate due to the amount of biking/hiking/exercise most people get. But in all other regards, this is an awesome idea more restaurants need to follow! Tell your favorite local restaurant to try doing this, it appears that this …
10 Years Ago Today
Ten years ago today I heard the words from my husband “It’s cancer”. He stood in Recovery Room with tears in his eyes and had to tell me my biopsy was positive. I was in shock and scared out of my mind. For about a day. And then we went into fighting mode. Not that I wasn’t still scared. I was. Every single day. As a former nurse, this wasn’t supposed to happen to me. This was the thing that happened to someone else. The Hardest moment came a week later when I sat in the “Cancer Center” waiting room at our local hospital. Here I was with my husband, who is a cancer surgeon, and I really wanted to run out of the room. I wasn’t scared of seeing the oncologist, or the treatments, but sitting in that room with others who were struggling, some who were clearly fighting a much larger fight than I was — that was the thing that I didn’t want to see. Was that my future? It felt too …
Grass Fed Beef ONLY
Updated Nov. 1, 2015 Changing your shopping habits to purchasing grass fed beef only is probably one of the best things you can do for your family’s health. I’ve updated this post with some new research and tables to make my point. We live in a culture where beef, chickens and pork are all fed grain, and (especially for beef) grain is not their natural diet. So, why spend the money on grass fed beef? Simple. All the research we were taught about red meat causing heart disease and cancer was based on evaluating data of people in US eating corn fed beef. But, when you look at populations who ONLY eat grass fed beef, they don’t have the same issues with heart disease. Even butter, long thought to be “evil” is actually pretty healthy if you buy “pasture” butter a.k.a. grass fed butter. So, if you are not vegetarian, you CAN enjoy a steak or hamburger and not feel guilty! Want to see more research? Click on links at bottom of this article. Why …
No Pop. No Soda. Ever.
So, I went to the dentist this week, and there was a great display on their waiting room coffee table! It showed various common sodas and in front of it in a beaker was the actual amount of sugar in the drink. They had soda, vitamin water, gatorade, etc. Great visual. And so I’m taking that a step further and explaining why YOU SHOULDN’T DRINK DIET SODA EITHER. The WI Dental Association has a pamphlet, and here are some interesting facts: a bottle of soda pop in the 50’s was 6.5 oz. Today 12 oz and 20 oz are common. a 64 oz. “Big Cup” has more than FIVE CANS of soda in it. there are NO nutritional value in soft drinks soda = cavities 20% of all 1 and 2 year old children drink soda! (yikes) teens drink 300% more soda than they did 20 years ago soft drink companies PAY high schools big bucks to offer their products sealants only protect tooth chewing surfaces, pop decay tends to occur where sealants can’t reach …
How to talk to your daughter about her body
This was originally a blog post, and then ran in Huffington as an op ed. This is so important, I’m re-posting it. If you have ANY girls in your life, READ THIS AND REMEMBER ALL of it! Actually, this goes for boys too! How to talk to your daughter about her body, step one: Don’t talk to your daughter about her body, except to teach her how it works. Don’t say anything if she’s lost weight. Don’t say anything if she’s gained weight. If you think your daughter’s body looks amazing, don’t say that. Here are some things you can say instead: “You look so healthy!” is a great one. Or how about, “You’re looking so strong.” “I can see how happy you are — you’re glowing.” Better yet, compliment her on something that has nothing to do with her body. Don’t comment on other women’s bodies either. Nope. Not a single comment, not a nice one or a mean one. Teach her about kindness towards others, but also kindness towards yourself. Don’t you dare …
The reverse of Super-size me and it’s lessons for us…
At this point, everybody probably knows about “Supersize Me”, the awesome documentary where a 30-something healthy male filmmaker named Morgan Spurlock vowed to eat McDonalds for a month and look at his health (to the horror of his vegan girlfriend!). The results surprised even him. The film documents the diet’s drastic effect on Spurlock’s physical and psychological well-being. Spurlock ate at McDonald’s restaurants three times per day, eating every item on the chain’s menu at least once. As a result, the then-32-year-old Spurlock gained 24½ lbs. ( a 13% body mass increase), a cholesterol level of 230, and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation in his liver. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight gained from his experiment using a vegan diet supervised by his future wife, a chef who specializes in gourmet vegan dishes. Fast forward to writer Michael Pollan, who has done more than anyone to teach us about food and what the western diet is doing to us. Here’s the reverse of Super-Size Me! “The human animal,” Pollan …
You must be logged in to post a comment.