Rethinking Holiday Eating

Some traditions are worth re-thinking. Remember that our ideas of “traditional foods” are not really that old: somehow I don’t think the Pilgrims used marshmallow topping on their sweet potatoes or made cherry Jello molds with canned pears in high fructose corn syrup. When you think about it, holiday feasting is really about our emotional connections with family and friends, much more so than about food. Still, now is a time to celebrate and spoil yourself and each other with the Best you can provide. With that in mind, I encourage you to shop for, prepare and consume the best Quality foods available in your budget. This isn’t a time to focus on quantity. No one needs 2 weeks worth of leftover water-injected, deep fried turkey (which decomposes into histamine-heavy time bombs the longer it sits in your fridge).

Find the freshest produce and whole foods you can and build your menus with these as the focus.

Splurge on meats that were fed and raised as close to the way they would naturally grow, eating what they would naturally eat, and free from genetically modified feeds and hormones.

Instead of high glycemic starchy dishes, emphasize multi-colored rainbows of veggies and fruits the liven up the plate and the palate. Skip the mashed potatoes in favor of roasted cauliflower with balsalmic reduction. Trade up from the marshmallow topped sticky sweet potato mess to a basket of backed sweet potato "fries" tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh rosemary. Add pomegranate seeds and sheep feta to your green salad. Get creative! I challenge you to find one new vegetable dish to add to your feast.

For desserts, instead of choosing store-bought pies made with high fructose corn syrup, consider making a fruit crumble or tossing frozen berries with whole coconut milk and topping with shavings of the deepest, darkest, most decadent chocolate you can find.

And remember, you’ll feel much better if you stick to a single serving of everything. You can always go back for seconds 3 hours later -- AFTER a walk with your guests...

Get Decadent. Get Moving. Get REAL.

Reader Question: "What foods are the most important to eat organic?"

An excellent question and let me say, you aren't the only one confused about this! First let’s clear up some misconceptions about what organic is and isn’t. What exactly does “organic” mean anyway? According to the USDA National Organic Program website, “organically grown” means the food was grown and processed without any synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. However, this doesn’t exclude fertilizers or pesticides that are naturally derived, so, this doesn’t mean the foods were never sprayed with anything. Currently “organic” also means no sewage sludge, irradiation or genetic modification can be used in the production of the food or ingredient (whew!).

As of 2002 there are three sub-designations that are important to know about: “100% organic”, “organic” and “made with organic ingredients”. The “100% organic” designation is the only one that is just that. All the ingredients must be certified organic. In the case of “organic”, all agricultural ingredients must be certified organic except where a special “National List” allows them not to be. These non-organic ingredients can’t make up more than 5% of the total (not counting water and salt). In the case of “made with organic ingredients”, at least 70% of the finished product has to be certified organic (not counting water and salt). Any other ingredients that are not required to be organic on the National List can’t be produced but “excluded methods” (another special list).

Tricky? You bet! Political? Absolutely! Consumer friendly? Nope. That said, it’s still a good idea to eat as organically as you can afford to for your long-term health and the overall health of our interlinked ecosystems. But, what do you do when you can’t afford to eat all organically all the time? Here are a few simple things to keep in mind. First, the lower on the food chain you eat, the less intensely concentrated these toxins become before you consume them. As you move farther away from the original interaction between dirt, seed, sun and rain (ex: chard > beetle > chicken > egg; or grass > cow > milk > butter) the more the toxic residues from fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, hormones, antibiotics, and more become, so as the human at the top, you ingest much higher quantities via eggs or butter than you do via chard or oats. Spend your hard earned cash on organic butter (and other dairy), meats, poultry, and eggs. Breathe a little easier about whole grains, most veggies and most fruits. For a really good list of the top most contaminated and the top cleanest conventionally grown fruits and veggies, get the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean 15” lists. They even have an ap for your phone so you have it with you when you grocery shop. For starters, only buy organic apples and spinach, but don’t worry so much about broccoli or avocados.

Lastly, when you start reducing "food products" with lots of ingredients on the labels and start eating more whole foods, you eliminate places where toxins can easily get hidden. Keep it REAL! Bon appetite!

(also published on the Patch.com)

GMOs: Genetically Modified Organisms in Our Food Supply

It is unnerving that three of the top five crops grown in the US are now mostly genetically modified. The number one crop, corn, is now 86% GM. Although only 12% of the yields are considered to be consumed directly by humans, over 80% is consumed by livestock and we consume them or their products. The number two crop, soy, is now 93% GM and 79% of all the edible oil consumed by Americans is soy oil. In addition, the following crops are also GM: cottonseed (93%), canola (90%), sugar beets (95%), as well as nearly all Hawaiian papaya, some zucchini and crookneck squash.(1,2)

Traits of GM crops
There are basically two main ways that GMOs are designed: 1) to create a plant that is herbicide tolerant (63% of GMOs); and 2) to create a plant that generates its own pesticides internally (16% of GMOs). About 21% of crops are designed to do both.

Industry Claims
Claims by the companies responsible for this technology, and the creation of the pesticides and herbicides that are used on these crops, assert that GMOs are perfectly safe for human consumption based on the use of some of these pesticides topically on crops over the past decades. As an example, Bt toxin (Bacillus thuringiensis) has been used as a spray on non-GM crops without research into long term effects on human health. Yet, the industry claims that by creating a plant that produces its own Bt toxin, it is essentially the same thing. However, the problem is one of both toxin concentration which is much higher in GM crops, and the alteration of other parts of the organism in ways that have not been studied for long term effects.

Other places you might not think to look for GMO ingredients:
Medications
Supplements

Possible application of biotechnology (3)
The application of genetic engineering is possible in the following ingredients of food supplements. It is however not possible to make general statements whether or not biotechnology was used in a specific product and to which extent.
Vitamins and provitamins: vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B12, biotin
Amino acids: cysteine, lysine, tryptophan, methionine, threonine, phenylalanine, glutaminic acid
Secondary plant metabolites: Plant sterols (phytosterines)
Soy protein
Brewing yeast
Enzymes (like amylase, lipase, lactase as digestive agents)
Flavours
Papaya
Emulsifiers: soya lecithin, soybean polyose (E426)
Filling agents: cellulose, ethylcellulose (E 462), dextrin
Acidity regulators: citric acid

Ingredients and additives that contain or likely contain GMOs:
Acetylated starch
Amino acid
Annatto
Ascorbic acid
Aspartame
Beta-carotene
Biotin
Bread Crumbs
Caramel
Caramel colouring
Caramel sugar
Carotinoids
Cellulose
Citric acid
Cobalamin
Corn flour
Cottonseed oil
Cysteine
Cystine
Dextrin
Dextrose
Diacetyl
Egg white solid
Egg yolk solid
Erythrit
Ethyl maltol
Ethylcellulose
Fatty acids
Flavours
Flaxseed
Flour
Fondant
Fructose
Fructose syrup
Glaze
Gluconic acid
Glucono-delta-lactone
Glucose
Glucose syrup
Glutamate
Glutamic acid
Glycerin
Guanylate
Guanylic acid
Hydroxypropylstarch
Inosinate
Inosinic acid
Invert sugar syrup
Invertase
Isomalt
Lactic acid
Lactoflavin
Lactose
Lecithin
Leucine
Linseed oil
Lysine
Lysozyme
Maize germ oil
Malt sugar
Maltitol syrup
Maltodextrins
Maltol
Maltose
Maltose syrup
Mannitol
Methionine
Methylcellulose
Milk protein
Modified Starch
Mono and Diglycerides
Natamycin
Nisin
Oxidised Starch
Persipan
Phenylalanine
Plant Fat
Plant oil
Plant protein product
Plant Sterols
Polenta
Polydextrose
Rapeseed oil
Riboflavin
Sorbitol
Soy Flour
Soy isolate
Soy Oil
Soy protein
Soya lecithin
Soybean polyose
Starch
Starch hydrolysate
Starch phosphate
Starch Sodium octenyl succinate
Sugar
Sunflower Oil
Sweeteners
Tapioca
Textured Soy Protein
Thaumatin
Threonin
Tocopherol
Trehalose
Trockeneiklar
Tryptophan
Vanilla aroma
Vanillin
Vitamin B12
Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)
Vitamin C
Vitamin E
Vitamins
Whey products
Xanthan
Xylitol
Yeast
Yeast extract
Yeast flakes
(from http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/database/ingredients/)

Enzymes that are derived from or likely derived from GMOs:
Acetolactate decarboxylase
Aminopeptidase
Amylase
Asparaginase
Catalase
Cellulase
CGTase
Chymosin
Galactosidase
Glucanase
Glucose isomerase
Glucose oxidase
Hemicellulase
Hexose oxidase
Laccase
Lactase
Lipase
Lipoxygenase
Mannanase
Pectinase
Pectinesterase
Phytase
Protease
Pullulanase
Transglutaminase
Xylanase

(from http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/database/enzymes/)


(1) http://www.epa.gov/oecaagct/ag101/cropmajor.html
(2) “Seeds of Deception” by Jeffery Smith
(3) http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/database/food/360.food_supplements.html


Get Informed. Get Clear. Get REAL.

Boosting Energy: the Dangers of the Quick Fix

Breakfast for Elliot is a bowl of frosted corn flakes with skim milk and a cup of black coffee. Zinging he hits the highway for work. By 10am he’s been to the break room twice for coffee and nibbles from the birthday cake left in the staff fridge. 12:30 lunch meeting where he eats a store-bought roast beef sandwich that is more bread than beef. Now it’s 3pm. Thinking is getting hard. Elliot is dragging and looking at the clock every 5 minutes wishing he could speed up time... He reaches for a cola/latte/mocha/chocolate bar to accelerate himself through to quitting time... Blood sugar surges, heart rate increases, insulin jets through the bloodstream trying to manage glucose...

Ok, let’s rewind all the way back to breakfast and see if we can’t help Elliot set himself up for a productive and energetic day...

Breakfast really is one of the most important meals of the day. It sets the stage for the rest of his day. Will he have enough fuel to keep his brain functioning on high when he needs it? If he breaks the fast he endured between 7am and dinner the night before with a balance of nutrients from each major food category he will stand a good chance. Good breakfast choices include low-glycemic carbohydrates like old fashioned oatmeal or 9-grain cereal, or low-sugar granola without dried fruit. Add to that a source of protein to give the body base materials for cell signally, nutrient transport and tissue repair such as eggs, nuts, or plain whole milk yogurt. Don’t leave out the healthy fats! Dietary fats act as the oak log on the bonfire that burns in the hours after the carbohydrate fuel has burnt off. Healthy fats include butter and whole milk fat from organic grass-fed cows, the oils found in nuts that can be put on oatmeal or in granola, and the fat found in whole coconut milk.

Coffee or tea can be beneficial, but it is advisable to be careful about adding sugar and avoid using sugar substitutes if you want to keep your brain healthy and your body trim. Caffeine and sugar together can help the brain be efficient and may be a good combination in small quantities prior to a strenuous thinking task such as taking and exam. But, in slightly larger quantities and frequencies, the sugar that comes in with the caffeine is more prone to become body fat than be used as fuel for speedy thought processes. Remember to keep drinking water though because caffeine will dehydrate the body and brain. Water is essential to efficient conduction of the electrical impulses that make up thoughts and nerve function.

Having access to healthy snacks at work or school is essential to keeping the brain happy and functioning without getting fuzzy. It is important to keep fuel coming in and not go more than about 3-4 hours without eating anything for brain performance and metabolism to stay high. Good choices to take along include trail mix (without candy), fresh fruit and a small pack of nuts or nut butter, hard boiled egg and crackers, or humus and sliced veggies.

Lunch should consist primarily of vegetables and protein with a sauce or dressing that includes a healthy fat. Examples might be a big salad with grilled salmon and hollandaise sauce, vegetable stir fry with chicken (skip the rice), or black bean and veggie soup or chili. By taking out the “white” food group of highly processed grains (bread, white rice, potatoes, pasta) you remove the culprit for the 3pm slump and the 5pm need to eat the couch before dinner.

Dinners for most of us need to be rearranged. This should not be our largest meal of the day after which we then slump mentally exhausted onto the couch and channel surf for 3 hours before bed. Dinners should be more like the “suppers” of old -- a lighter meal than lunch with more veggies than starches and a keen attention to lean healthy proteins for the body to use throughout the night as it moves into rest and repair mode. Loading up on high glycemic carbohydrates and grains is the wrong move for most people. These are the faster burning fuels that are better used during the day when we are vertical and exerting ourselves (hopefully!) physically. It is the proteins and vitamins and minerals and enzymes that are most useful to our bodies at night.

These are very general suggestions! For more details on how your own particular body utilizes foods and which sort of eating plan would work best for you, please consult with a nutritionist who understands that you are your own personal Universe. If there was a single “diet book” that worked for everyone, we wouldn’t have shelves full of different options. A qualified professional can help create meal plans and menus that will work for your whole family and not turn you into a short-order cook for each member of the household. It doesn’t have to be hard.

Get curious. Get informed. Get REAL.

Vanquishing the Dragons: Migraines and Chronic Headaches

So many people I know (myself included) are plagued by migraines or by chronic debilitating headaches. I have found that in many cases once the detective work has been done effectively, we can eradicate the causes of these inner fire breathing dragons that hold so many of us hostage.

Quick Definitions:
A migraine is not just a really bad headache. Migraines involve a whole host of other systems and symptoms that can range from visual disturbances such as the illusion of flickering lights or auras, to severe light induced nausea, to hemi-facial (“half the face”) pain, numbness or nerve dysfunction. Often pain is actually less of a problem than the other symptoms which can drive some sufferers into dark silent rooms for days. Most people who are susceptible will experience their first migraine right around puberty.

Chronic daily headaches (CDH) are defined by their frequency (15 or more days out of each month for more than 3 months) and the primacy of blinding pain as the key symptom. Chronic tension-induced headaches typically hurt on both sides of the head and evolve from tension of the muscular structures of the head, neck and/or shoulders.

Common Causes:
Medication misuse or overuse; allergies and toxic exposures; stress; sleep issues; caffeine withdrawal or overindulgence; illness; infection; skipping meals; chronic dehydration; and obesity. Often there is a hormonal influence that comes into play (especially for women). Testing is an important part of the detective work to get to the root cause.

My Own Story:
As a child and then teen I began noticing that I had worsening headaches every time I ate conventionally raised beef. In college I decided to try vegetarianism and took a few years off of all meats and the headaches disappeared. I then was traveling and opted to try a hamburger with a couple of glasses of cabernet right after a week of high stress, little sleep and food poisoning. Needless to say my body went into conniptions. I gave myself my first classic migraine and ended up in the hospital for five days while a multitude of tests were run to determine that I wasn’t having a brain hemorrhage. My symptoms: flickering visual aura in my right eye, extreme light sensitivity, nausea, numbness and tingling on the right side of my face, and a strange “far away” feeling headache. Once I eliminated conventionally grown beef from my life and took a break from the red wine, chocolate, aged cheeses and coffee, and learned how to manage my stress, I have only experienced a handful of migraines since.

3 Things to Try Now:

1. ALWAYS start with a big glass of water. We are a chronically dehydrated culture. See what 16 ounces of cool water (not iced) does before diving into medications.
2. Test for food allergies. Typical foods that drive the headache/migraine response include all those on my list above: red wines, aged cheeses, chocolate, caffeine, and cured meats as well as preservatives, artificial colors, artificial sweeteners, and the toxins in conventionally raised foods (pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and hormone residues).
3. Breathe. We forget to simply breathe in our rush rush rush way of living. Take time to just focus on the breath taking clean life-giving oxygen in deeply and exhaling equally deeply for a few minutes each day. If you don’t have any other stress-reduction technique, at least incorporate this one! You can do it anywhere!

Reinventing Box Lunches

In case you hadn’t noticed all the back-to-school sales, getting the kids out the door in time for school is just around the corner. One of questions (and exasperations) I hear about a lot is “I want my kids to eat healthy at school, but I don’t know what to give them and it’s easier to send them off with lunch money for the cafeteria.” Part of the conundrum revolves around a child’s age. When they are younger parents have more influence over their food choices. I always suggest that parents avail themselves of the opportunity to expose their kids to lots of different flavors while they are young and get them used to eating healthy nourishing foods early. This sets the stage for good habits later in life. The tricky part is getting through the tweens and teens when peers have more influence over food choices. 

I highly recommend making time in the morning to make your children box lunches. While you’re at it, make one for yourself if you’re headed out the door too. In the long run you will save money and promote good habits for them (and for yourself). It is very important for kids to see you take care of yourself so they have a good role model. If it takes getting yourself (and your kids) up 15 minutes earlier, it’s worth it. Teens can certainly be making their own lunches after some simple training.

Make it Fun:

One really fun way to keep lunches interesting for kids (and adults!) is to use Japanese style bento boxes (check out www.laptoplunches.com or www.lunchinabox.net) or Indian style tiffin boxes (www.lunchboxes.com/indian.html or www.amazon.com/Eco-Lunch-Box-three-in-one-set/dp/B0040MH642/ref=pd_sim_k_6). This concept falls in line with another recommendation I make with regards to grocery shopping: rather than getting home with all the bags and just stuffing everything away, take a little time to “pre-process” some of the veggies and fruits into slices or chunks that can be easily added to salads, stir-fries, or used for dipping. If you have done some of this work beforehand, it makes it easy to simply fill some of the bento boxes with fresh healthy foods quickly on a busy morning.

Contents:

1. Great things for younger children and for adult mid-day snacks are bean dips and spreads with veggies and/or whole grain crackers. Try the curried hummus recipe below for a vibrant golden tasty option. You can make bean dips from any bean.
2. Leftovers are a great option too. When cooking dinner the night before, think about cooking twice as much as you need for that meal so everyone has leftovers for their lunch boxes the next day. You can even put the leftovers away in lunch box containers so all you have to do is grab and go in the morning.
3. Soups, stews and chili are good choices as well. Again, simply make more than you need for a dinner meal and store in lunch sized (spill proof) containers that you can pack in an insulated lunch box. You can even get soup style thermoses with wide mouth tops
4. Salads: keep in mind that salads don’t have to begin with lettuce! There are thousands of ways to put together a combination of ingredients that can be called “salad”. You can create a grain and legume salad such as quinoa and lentils with a bunch of other delicious veggies diced small and marinated overnight in a simple dressing of olive oil and lime juice with a little salt and pepper. There are also delicious tuna salads, egg salads and chicken salads that you can create to you children’s taste. If you make some of these things in advance, it’s easy to scoop some into a lunch container and blast out the door in the morning. 

It takes a little pre-planning, but home made lunches made from real food ingredients are guaranteed to be more nutritious than most of the offerings at the cafeteria (particularly the options your children will likely choose when left to their own devices), and it is far less expensive in the long run for both you and your children to eat a lunch brought from home.

Quick Curried Hummus

all organic ingredients if you can

by Kia Sanford MS CN

1 large can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

3 cloves garlic, peeled

3 scallions with greens, chopped

juice of 1 lemon (you can add a little grated rind as well, I use Meyer lemons when available)

a generous ¼ cup tahini

2 Tbsp tamari

1 Tbsp cider vinegar

1 Tbsp olive oil

¼ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp ground coriander

¼ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp turmeric

½ tsp Kosher salt

Put all ingredients in food processor and let it run until the consistency is what you want. Adjust spices to your taste (may want to add a little more salt). To make it more creamy, add olive oil to your taste. Serve with veggies or whole grain crackers for dipping, or use as a sandwich spread.

Storage Units: The Pathologies of Packing and Packing It On

It occurs to me that in this country we have parallel pathologies on the same trajectory to ill health. Have you noticed that nearly every community, no matter how small, has an extra “roll” around the edges of self-storage units? They are sprouting up everywhere. As a culture and a people we can’t seem to let go of “stuff”. We are on a path to collect stuff. We pass on our stuff to our kids and grandkids. We build whole new houses to put more and more stuff in. We forgo investing in businesses to help humanity in favor of the sure bet of building more storage units. We can’t seem to take responsibility for getting rid of the stuff that accumulates. Instead, we make excuses for the amount of stuff we have and stuff that stuff into bigger “clothes”. At the same time, as a people we are stuffing ourselves. We buy more and more low quality foods because we are lead to believe we can afford more of the cheap options. We eat more and more highly processed foods that put our bodies into storage mode. We trick our metabolism into wanting more and more calories so the body can create more storage units and we can buy bigger clothes. We then store the smaller sizes in the storage unit in the event that sometime in the future we will lose weight. The closer I look the more connected I believe these two pathologies are. 

Commonalities in development:

• Abdication of personal responsibility in favor of the “expert opinion” or “just take a pill”.
• The credit culture has eliminated anticipation and saving or working towards a desired goal. Waiting until you can actually afford something is seen as silly now. But because we can have whatever we want “now”, the thrill of the chase is eliminated, we grow weary of our new acquisition quickly, and fixate on the next “must have” item. Whether that is a Big Mac, a 65” TV or a Hummer.
• Dedication to the TV as evidenced by the ever expanding channels and the ever dumbing down of content (we now watch “reality TV” to see what life is like in the outside world).
• Reduction in interest in the physical environment and dissociation of humans from the environment to the point where children can’t recognize a vegetable or understand that chicken doesn’t just materialize in styrofoam and plastic wrap.
• Diminution of actual bodily movement -- the most used appendage seems to have become the thumb and some people manage to move little else. 
• Withdrawal from real human connection in favor of mass media entertainment and virtual worlds.
• Growing inability to communicate effectively which goes hand in hand with the last item.
• Oblivious disregard for personal impact on the environment. With no relationship there is no responsibility for one’s actions.
• Definition of success as accumulation and chronic overabundance, and the denial of the growing problem of excess. Belief that endless expansion is sustainable, but uncontrolled growth is abnormal growth. In cellular terms, this is cancer.
• Inability to find a starting point to make personal changes.
• Lack of tools to create and sustain lasting change.

Re-Style Your Lifestyle:

It's Spring Cleaning Time! Cleaning up and cleaning out your physical storage units has positive impact on many levels not the least of which is you may discover you don't really need most of what you've been storing. You can make money selling it off, or take a tax break for donating your "stuff" to charity. Hey, you may even discover you don't need to be paying rent on that storage unit at all! Now, with that extra money available, you can actually afford to invest in yourSelf. Now you can more easily get to work on your cellular storage units. Now you can afford to join the gym, sign up for Boot Camp, take a nutrition class, and/or upgrade your grocery choices...

More on this as the metaphor manifests... Get A Grip. Get Organized. Get REAL.

REAL Cool iPhone Apps

So, a wise friend and colleague thought a good follow-up to the last post on helpful web links would be iPhone applications that I find useful since so many of us are iPhone junkies... (yes, myself included). I tend to be most interested in the ones that are free or very inexpensive because they are easy to recommend to people who want to try something new. Here are a few that I use myself that you may want to check out.

Medically Related Applications:
Epocrates = solid information on drugs, interactions and research updates
Medical Calc = a grouping of calculators used in medical settings
MedRef = lists of normal lab values and references
PubSearch = the iPhone app version of PubMed Search referencing hundreds of medical journals

Fitness Related Applications:
TrailGuru = tracks your hike, walk or bike via GPS; you can upload the info including photos taken on your outing to their website; gives you distance traveled, elevation gain and loss, and a map of your journey
StepTrakLite = step counting program which gives you input on levels of exercise not just steps counted
iWalk = gives you step counting, total distance, speed, and calories burned
LoseIt! = very comprehensive food journaling app that also allows you to enter exercise, goals for weight and nutrients, logging with groups of friends, setting up motivating daily emails, and more. This is a favorite although I wish it worked more with serving size and less with calories.
GymGoalLite = a good exercise workout tracker complete with instructional videos of various exercises, set programs to try, and the ability to create your own workout with goals and tracking

Food Related Applications:
Dirty Dozen = the complete list of pesticides in produce from the Environmental Working Group, handy to have when you're doing your shopping
SeafoodWatch = a good fish list from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, also handy while shopping
Epicurious = recipes and menu ideas, searchable by ingredient, meal type, season, and ease of preparation; also creates shopping lists for you from recipes; lets you save favorites in your own file
AllRecipes DinnerSpinner = a fun way to change up your meals and try something new

Strictly Geeky Photo Fun:
Hipstamatic = photography with a retro twist to create really fun effects and photos
CameraBag = like Hipstamatic but you can import photos and tweak them within the program as well
PS Express = Photoshop mini version for the iPhone; import or take photos and then play with them
Autostitch = create panoramic photos from a series of shots

There you have it! Get Connected. Get Hip. Get REAL!

Linked Up

Hi All! It was a hectic month of moving house and torrential rain storms. Finally up for air and back on the board.

A friend and colleague suggested that I post some of the links I find useful in the wide web world of food and nutrition, so here goes:

The USDA Nutrition Database is good basic info on food contents: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

and Nutrition Data is a searchable database of foods that uses the USDA information to create a broad analysis of nutrients, energy availability, and more: http://nutritiondata.self.com/tools/nutrient-search

The Environmental Working Group is an independent research and reporting group that isn't owned by Monsanto so they aren't afraid to report the truth of what they find: http://www.ewg.org/

The Glycemic Index Foundation has valuable info on the glycemic index and glycemic load of most carbohydrates in our food supply: http://www.glycemicindex.com/

The Harvard School of Nutrition is among the first of the more conservative sites to wake up to the problems created by the over emphasis on high-carb diets, and they are a good conservative scientific voice about nutrition in general: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/index.html

Lance Armstrong's site has a good, easy body fat estimator (they call it a calculator, but it's hard to do that with just numbers and a formula, you need a way to actually measure): http://www.livestrong.com/tools/body-fat-calculator/

The Organic Consumers Association has their finger on the pulse of food news: http://www.organicconsumers.org/

There, that's a solid start! Do you have any favorites?

Get Curious. Get Info. Get REAL.

A Revolutionary Idea

Are you one of the many thousands who make New Year's Resolutions? Do you start off with oodles of resolve and commitment only to get to the end of January and throw in the towel? The diet and fitness industries (and oh yes, we're talking huge money making industries!) count on you to fail. Yep, you read that right. They count on you to FAIL. Why? Simple math. Their marketing gurus can then guilt you into buying another diet food or signing up for another gym membership or purchasing another piece of bulky home equipment. All of these are destined to miss the mark as well. One of the things I tell my clients regularly is that the diet industry is not your friend. They are guaranteed to lighten your wallet but fail you in your well-intentioned desire for health. The biggest reason for this is every diet and exercise program is "bookended", meaning that there is a beginning and an end. Once you reach the end (or quit in frustration) you tend to return to the "real world" and all the old habits that got you in trouble in the first place. Lasting change is NOT what the diet industry wants! That would devastate their profit margin.

Reclaiming your health is nothing short of Revolutionary in this day and age. Truly. There are so many forces out there fighting against you! It takes courage and guts to claim your Self. We are lulled into oblivion by sales pitches, television, fake surgically-created celebrity bodies, quick fix promises and medications that seem to magically remove personal responsibility (until the side effects kick in). We are sold a load of garbage and told it's food. We are tricked into believing that we don't actually have to DO anything about our health, just take this new medication. Those clever marketing agents have discovered that people don't really want to hear the truth: if you want to attain and maintain health, you have to take an active role. You actually have to take responsibility and make changes that stick for a lifetime, not just until the end of January or until you make it to that high school reunion. You have to swim upstream against the marketing assaults that hit you in the gut at every turn. You have to start listening to what your body needs and break free from the hypnotic drone of the advertisements for no-calorie, no-fat triple chocolate layer cake, no-exercise, eat-all-you-want, lose-20-pounds-in-2-days, fat-flush fantasies. You have to get to that place where the proverbial line in the sand stops moving and you take the first step toward the You you know is in there buried under the cases of Slim Fast, Lean Cuisine and Vitamin Water. The REAL You. The Vibrant You. I won't pull punches, the beginning is difficult. The terrain is fraught with perilous pitfalls and dead ends. It requires moxie and stick-with-it-ness. But you know what? The challenge is worth it. YOU are worth it! I haven't worked with a single person who has made this commitment to care deeply for themselves and regretted it! I have met many people who have woken up out of their couch-glued, prime-time, high-fructose, guilt-induced-sound-bite stupors in wonder, gasping at their new-found sense of vitality. They wonder how they ever allowed themselves to slip into the rivers of snake oil. With new-found strength and determination they spring forward into the adventure called life that stretches out in front of them. Won't you join them?

Here is a radical idea: WAKE UP. TAKE CHARGE. GET REAL.

Stalking the Sprout

I have to admit, I used to really hate Brussels sprouts. I mean truly gagging hate them. And then I moved to Santa Cruz, California, for college in the county where these little alien-looking gems grow, and some blessed soul actually cooked them for me without draining the life from them. It’s that time of year again and so many folks I talk to get that same look on their faces that I know I used to have at the mention of these cruciferous goodies. So, here you go, one delectable and exceedingly simple way to prepare fresh from the stalk sprouts...

First, procure a stalk of sprouts! (If you happen to be in the California San Francisco Bay Area, they are even in Trader Joe's right now). Then carefully cut the needed number of sprouts from the stalk (about 6-8 per person is a good serving).

Remove the outer leaves of these mini cabbages, take off any remaining stem, and cut in half. Don't worry if some additional leaves fall off in the process, they'll crisp up when cooking.

Add about 1 tablespoon of organic butter and 4-8 tablespoons of dry white wine, sake or broth to a sauce pan and heat on medium-low until butter is melted.

Add the sprouts and season with fresh ground black pepper and a little salt (I like kosher salt or Himalayan pink).

Stir or shake the pan to coat the sprouts and then cover. Let the sprouts cook for a couple of minutes before lowering the heat to a simmer.

After about 4-5 minutes shake or stir the sprouts and cover again for a couple more minutes. Start checking for doneness and to be sure your pot doesn't boil dry. Your sprouts should be nicely browned on one side and all the liquid should be gone. The sprouts should be slightly soft but still a little crunchy in the center. 

Serve immediately! You want them hot! Here is the dinner I had tonight with lamb, quinoa and a yogurt cilantro sauce, flanked by a few slices of crunchy apples. Fantastic! 

Sugar: the rational approach (Part 2 on the sugar topic)

Some of you may have seen the recent article I was interviewed for here in Marin County, CA. It was quite timely as it was about the Halloween sugar issue that got me going to write the first part of this missive. As promised, I've got some more info for you on our sweet friend/foe.

Keep in mind one of the things I say over and over: you can take any item we ingest and make it into a poison if you take in enough of it. Even excessive consumption of water can cause huge issues such as hyponatremia which is an electrolyte imbalance that produces symptoms that look like drunkenness. When it comes to sugar, the body doesn't actually need the refined stuff. It needs the unrefined versions that come with a complete package of nutrients. As I mentioned last time, there is a big difference between the amount of fructose in an apple and the amount in a 12 ounce soda. Add in the fact that the apple also brings with it fiber, vitamins A, C, K, folate, choline, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and even a few omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. That soda? Nothing but sugar, artificial flavors and colors, and probably caffeine.

When you look at sugar itself as we think of it, the white granulated kind, there is a good website that has translated sugar content equivalents into stacked sugar cubes so you get a clear visual on the amount of sugar in various foods. Check out Sugar Stacks with your kids sometime. It's an eye opener for sure. They also use the visual of the equivalent amount of carrots which is a fun alternative when you consider that a 20 ounce bottle of Coke has the same amount of sugar as about 3 pounds of carrots...

I'll say it again: Sugar that comes in the form of food isn't bad in and of itself. It's the amounts of the refined stuff that we have become accustomed to consuming that are the problem. One of the things that often confuses my clients is that the whole food group called carbohydrate is partially defined by the fact that these foods all end up being at least partially converted into blood sugar. Carbohydrates include table sugar and bread, but also spinach and peaches, broccoli and strawberries. It is all the veggies, fruits and grains and everything made from them. This is a HUGE food group. The key is that each unrefined carbohydrate also contains other vital nutrients, as in the example of the apple above. To eliminate this entire food group is a big mistake in the long run. The Atkins people learned this the hard way and have now modified their approach to include the foods that turn into blood sugar more slowly.

This brings me to the Glycemic Index. This is a way to look at the speed at which sugar enters the system. Each carbohydrate you can eat "clocks in" on a speedometer that goes from 0-100. A simple rule of thumb is that your speed limit should be 55 or lower. You can look up any carbohydrate to find it's Glycemic Index here. An easy way of thinking about the speed is by thinking about how refined or processed a food is. The more it's been broken down outside the body (by mechanical processing, heat, pressure, etc.) the less time it takes your body to absorb it and so the higher it is on the Glycemic Index. That said, it is important to also consider the serving size and what other foods you are eating at the same time. For example, watermelon clocks in at about 75 on the Glycemic Index, but when you take into consideration that the amount water and fiber in watermelon is pretty high, the actual load of a 120g serving is only about 5. This is an extreme individual food example, but you will see some of the same sorts of interesting numbers when you combine foods. If you look at a plain corn tortilla, it's Glycemic Index is about 52. If you add refried beans and salsa, then that tortilla clocks in at about 39 on the same scale. However, if you fry that tortilla (corn chips) you end up at around 74! Same base material, but processing and food combining have dramatically different effects on the blood glucose outcome.

So the trick here becomes HOW to eat carbohydrates, yes, including sweets. It is important to make a mess for your body to sort through to find the sugars. As I sometimes say in sessions with clients, think of your stomach as a teenager's bedroom. You want it to be really messy. You want to have to search hard to find a clean pair of socks (the sugar). So if you want that dessert? The best way to do it is to have it immediately following your meal, not 2 hours later. And, as you learn more about real foods, make lower glycemic choices more often.

Get smart. Get healthy. Get REAL.

Post Halloween Sugar Crash

Hi All - sorry for the radio silence of late. Loads going on in my world and I'm happy to say "it's all good!" I just got interviewed here in Marin for an article on the post-Halloween sugar overload nightmare. I find it so interesting how as a culture we continually set ourselves up for disaster and then bemoan it's arrival. That pathology is the root of so many of our culturally based ills... and the subject of a dissertation at another time. Today I want to dive shallowly into sugar.

Myth: Sugar is bad.
Fact: Sugar is essential to life, just not anywhere near the quantities in which it is currently consumed. Overconsumption of sugar-laden foods and high-glycemic index carbohydrates is one of the root causes of many chronic diseases we see in the US.

Myth: Artificial sweeteners are a healthy substitute for sugar.
Fact: Long-term use of ANY artificial sweeteners leads to weight GAIN. The metabolic breakdown products of aspartame includes formaldehyde -- yes, the same stuff those pickled rats from high school biology lab were stored in, AKA embalming fluid. Sucralose is a chlorinated hydrocarbon in the same chemical family as agent orange. 'Nuff said.

Myth: Agave syrup is a healthy alternative to table sugar.
Fact: High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is about 65% fructose/35% glucose. Agave syrup is about 95% fructose. Concentrated fructose ingestion is far more damaging than an equivalent amount of table sugar. Even moderately high doses of fructose lead to fatty streaks in the liver, increases the production of triglycerides, and an increased risk of heart disease to name only a few problems. Another thing those HFCS commercials aren't telling you is that the levels of mercury found in HFCS is dangerously high.

Industry Supported Myth: Sugar consumption has no effect on children's behavior.
Fact: Just ask any parent or school teacher... I beg to differ from the industry sponsored "studies" that show there is no change in children's activity levels pre/post sugar consumption! Empirical evidence overrides this "finding" repeatedly...

Fact: Evaporated Cane Juice is sugar. The least amount of processing you can find the better as the nutrients that accompany the sweetness are still largely intact. Try unrefined sugars that still have their natural molasses brown color. (Standard "brown sugar" is actually refined white sugar with some of the molasses added back in, or food colorings and flavorings...) The refining process uses chemicals like formic acid, phosphoric acid and sulfur dioxide.

Fact: Unrefined cane sugar is about 50% glucose/50% fructose. The fructose and glucose actually act synergistically to help the body use the sugars appropriately when found in that ratio. Surprise, the body actually knows what to do with it.

Fact: The 13 grams of fructose you would find in an apple is not dangerous. The 30 grams of fructose found in a 12oz soda is a problem.

I will post more on this topic very soon, so watch this space. If you have any specific questions you'd like to see addressed, please email me or comment here. Get educated about your food. Get REAL.

Re-Inventing Yourself

As we move into Autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere, now is usually the time we move from extroversion to introversion, from energy expanding outward to a more contemplative way of being in the world. I like to think of this transition as a time to think about the intentions we want to set for our winter cocoon so that when we split that shell and climb out in the Spring, our new wings are fully formed for the next season of expansion. Now is a great time to think about what aspects of yourself you are ready to shed like a maple leaf. What doesn't serve you anymore? What can you let go of so you can reach for something that pulls you forward in a positive way?

Often in my discussions with clients I find that there is a tendency to hold on with a death grip to the past, to those things that we know aren't good for us and yet are too afraid to let go of. Sometimes those things are habits of thought ("I'm not good at ____" or "I always/never _____"), sometimes habits of the body (having coffee instead of breakfast, inactivity, addictions), and sometimes they are things we carry for others (guilt, shame, "shoulds" handed down from family and culture). Often I find that we allow our habits to govern our lives, we think it's easier that way. The problem is that although many of these habits were developed in response to an original need (and we responded the best we could in that situation), those habits have outlived their usefulness and are now leading us down a path that causes more problems than it solves.

To externalize this idea, take a look at most political struggles, especially around environmental issues. One of the common responses to the question of "Isn't there another way to do this that could be more beneficial and less damaging?" is a response from the habit which says "Why should we change? We've ALWAYS done it this way! What worked for my father and grandfather is good enough for me!" The trouble with this response is that it isn't a response, it's a habitual reaction. It is identical to what I hear in sessions with clients: "I've always eaten this way and it's been fine" or "I've never liked vegetables and plain water". When you hear those words "always" and "never" echoing in your head, stop and ask yourself who's talking. Is it the adult you with your best interests in mind? Or, is it the old habit that doesn't want to be told it's been fired?

I encourage you to take some time as the leaves change and the weather cools to take stock of your habits. Are there any that no longer serve your highest good? Are there any that actually endanger your long-term health? Is there just one that you can envision changing into a beautiful red maple leaf falling from a healthy tree and becoming nourishing soil at your feet? Peel off the old and make room for the new REAL you...

Harvest

August is here. Finally. And how. I'm not sure about where you're living, but here in the San Francisco Bay Area it's been living up to John Muir's complaints until yesterday when we blew through heat records. Yesterday my car thermometer registered 107F in Mill Valley which has been fogged in and regularly in the 60s most of the summer. The happy news is that this heat wave means my tomato plants are finally producing! Well, at least the ones that the deer haven't bonsai'd. There's just nothing like a vine ripened tomato you've been fussing over all summer. Having been spoiled by my green-thumb mother who had 1/4 acre gardens during my childhood, I just can't bring myself to buy tasteless, hard, pale commercial tomatoes. They're more like packing material than food.

You know, I find myself saying things like that about so many commercial foods. Think about it, when have you ever bought produce that was actually full of flavor from the local Safeway or Albertsons or A&P? They're starting to get a clue and offering organic versions which are slightly better, but so many of the organic producers are trying to create shippable products that can be picked too early and with a density that doesn't fit all fruits and veggies. Even the produce that is supposed to be dense, like a carrot, remains tasteless when compared to one pulled from your back yard, or from a local farm stand.

Do yourself a favor and treat yourself to a trip to a farmers' market or roadside stand in the next few weeks. Even if you can't find an organic offering, get some fruits and vegetables that are ripened in the field. The taste will blow you away if you're used to everything tasting the same. You don't have to prepare them in any fancy way. Let the flavors of the produce speak for themselves. Have a little butter on your corn or green beans. Have sliced tomatoes with a little fresh basil, sea sale and olive oil. Try a green salad topped with as many different colors as you can find and then just a quick squeeze of lime, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Great food doesn't have to be complicated, it just has to start with great REAL ingredients.

Get Moving!

I find it interesting that so many of my clients, friends and family end up having this conversation with me. Sometimes it comes up directly as is often the case with my clients. Other times, it's this circumspect navigation around to the topic. What it comes down to is that in this American culture of "busyness" we have conveniently convinced ourselves that there just isn't enough time to get any exercise in the day. We have to pick up and drop off kids, we have to commute to work and back, we have to do the laundry, we have to do the taxes, you name it, there's a reason. The reasons all sound like good ones. They are all things that need doing in this adult world, and not all of them fun either. Still, I challenge everyone on this point.

I think part of the issue is that we have also been convinced by marketers, researchers and magazine articles that "exercise" is something separate from your life. Something you have to take time out to do. Something that requires a whole separate wardrobe or gear or machines or memberships. What we forget is that we have these bodies 24/7 until we're 6 feet under. They move us through space, hold us upright in line at the bank, carry that laundry to the machines in the garage, and swing our children or grandchildren up for a piggy back ride. These bodies are designed to move and bend and lift and walk. Most importantly, walk. It's one of the few things that makes us special as a species, and yet as a culture we are doing our level best to avoid it at all costs. We have invented all sorts of ways to avoid walking: elevators, escalators, cars, moving sidewalks and golf carts to name a few.

Here is my challenge to you: from the standpoint of moving, act as if you live in 1810 rather than 2010 as often as you can. See where you can opt to take the stairs or leave the car at home and walk. If you must drive, see if you can park once and walk to all your errands with the car in a central location, or at least park the car as far as possible from the front door of the business you're visiting.

For the techies out there like me, invest in a pedometer and track your progress. Spend the first week just logging what you normally do. Then challenge yourself to add 100 steps each day until you get up to at least a mile. You'll be surprised at how quickly it actually happens! Most people start out thinking they'll never be able to and end up walking 5 miles or more a day just by increasing the steps they take in living life.

It doesn't take purchasing a gym membership, $100 shoes, or a $1000 bicycle. It also doesn't take blocking out 2 hours each day to get to the gym, change, get all sweaty in an hour-long workout, shower, and get back to your life. Of course those planned workouts will accelerate the process of getting and staying healthy, but THE most important thing is just to move. Move more. Eat less. Get REAL.

Medicinal Effects of Foods - Part 4

OK - here goes: SWEETENERS

I have to take a deeeeeep breath here because this is a huge topic of interest and concern for my clients. This is one of those places where politics, money, marketing, health, science, habits, and the force of denial come crashing into each other. In my experience, artificial sweeteners are in the top 3 of the most controversial and heatedly debated food topics today, the other two being dairy and soy (followed closely by GMOs and pesticides).

For starters, people don't want to believe that food is political. We KNOW this on one level, but we don't want to know it at another. If you've worked with me for even a short amount of time you've likely heard me say that denial is a force stronger than gravity. Our denial is like burying our heads in the sand or refusing to see what is actually right in front of us. Denial allows marketing agents to play on our fears and our habits that keep us from making changes that will cost their clients money. Denial allows back room dealings between politicians and the industrial food industry to remain relatively hush hush because we really don't want to know that Donald Rumsfeld was instrumental in getting the drug aspartame pushed into our food supply; or that huge industry efforts were made to silence scientist Dr Mary Enig when she started to speak out about the health dangers of trans-fats; or that the beef industry waged a terrifyingly large law suit against Oprah for saying she wouldn't eat conventional beef on national TV. Denial allows us to walk into our average grocery store and assume that whatever is being sold on the shelves must be safe to consume. So first off I'm going to ask my readers to put denial aside for a few minutes and read on.

Here in the industrialized world we have been operating for decades on the belief that we can have better lives through scientific manipulation of our environment, our foods, our cleaning products, our water... actually nearly everything. At the sustenance level, we have gotten it into our heads that we are smarter than Mother Nature and we can create better foods than the ones our bodies developed utilizing over eons. With an exceptionally limited understanding of how the human body and all of it's systems work, we think we can create substances that will provide our bodies with exactly what they need as well as feed the habits of desire without consequences. So, we end up with things like "no calorie sweeteners" in the form of aspartame or sucralose, and "fat substitutes" like olestra. The trouble begins when you start looking a bit more closely at how the body utilizes these "Frankenfoods". For this post, I'm going to limit this glimpse to artificial sweeteners. Here are just a few simple verifiable facts:

Fact: Aspartame (aka NutraSweet, Equal, AminoSweet, and Candarel) breaks down in the human body into 2 amino acids, and methanol. Methanol, also known as "wood alcohol", is broken down in the body to formaldehyde. Yup, you read that right. Formaldehyde, the same stuff that those frogs were floating in before you dissected them in high school biology class.

Fact: Formaldehyde is a carcinogen and neurotoxin. There is no safe level of human exposure to formaldehyde (which is why those frogs are no longer preserved in it for biology classes).

Fact: Donald Rumsfeld was CEO of Searle Laboratories before taking office in the Reagan administration. After his appointment, he vowed to get aspartame approved for use in the American food supply. It had been denied for the previous 16 years due to significant health concerns.

Fact: Sucralose is a laboratory-made chlorinated hydrocarbon with the same base as DDT made by using phosgene which is a neurotoxin used in World War I as a choking gas. Phosgene is also used to make plastics and pesticides.

Fact: Chlorine is a highly reactive substance in the body and one of the most active pro-oxidants in the human system. Chlorine gas was used against troops extensively in World War II.

Fact: The company that makes sucralose (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson) is in the midst of a lawsuit for false advertising and misleading the public into believing it's actually just sugar that has had its calories magically removed.

Fact: The long term use of no-calorie artificial sweeteners will actually cause weight gain and worsen diabetes.

Fact: Sucralose can cause shrinkage of the thymus gland, enlargement of the liver and kidneys, decreased red blood cell count, blood sugar disregulation, reduced fetal and placental weights, and miscarriage.

Fact: There are over 92 significant side effects of aspartame ingestion including: migraine, seizures, blindness, tinnitus, dizziness, confusion, severe depression, anxiety, aggression, heart palpitations, increased blood pressure, bloody diarrhea, birth defects and brain damage.

Heard enough yet? I could go on and on, but it gets me really riled up so I'm stopping here. Your body knows what to do with sugar. It's 10 calories per teaspoon.

Get smart. Get healthy. Get REAL.

Medicinal Effects of Foods - Part 3

I have many clients who come to see me worried about weight gain and what has become known in our culture as "emotional eating". These clients want to stop using eating as a way to medicate themselves. The thing is, everything we put in our systems has biochemical effects. Keep in mind that thoughts and emotions are "things" from a biological standpoint. They are real biochemical processes with ingredients and metabolic outcomes that can be tracked. The simplest form of medication that we've learned over the millennia is the use of food and drink to change the way neurotransmitters in the gut and brain behave. Because eating is something we must do, changing the way we relate to food as medicine is important. You can easily see why it would be important to quit smoking and you can make efforts to do so. But a person can't just quit eating. This is why it's so difficult to tease apart.

Let's start here: You can't take food and emotions apart. Because emotions and thoughts are built from the basic ingredients we take in. When looking at "emotional eating" it is important to really understand this statement. The foods (and other substances) you ingest become you. There are whole supermarkets full of "food products" that have little or no connection with what could be conceived of as Real Food. Just as real food becomes the biochemical building blocks of your muscles, your organs, your immune system, your thoughts and your emotions, so too do all the new-fangled chemicals that have entered our food supply in the last 100 years. It is vital that you start asking yourself "Is this what I want to build myself out of today?"

For most of us, sugar is our biggest weakness and the thing that has the biggest negative impact. Sugar is pro-inflammatory, depresses the immune system, contributes to mood instability, creates an acidic internal environment, worsens PMS symptoms, and hastens aging, just to name a few. But we love the stuff! Why? It makes perfect sense from a biochemical standpoint. The same bank of lights in the brain that gets turned on by serotonin (the neurotransmitter that makes us feel happy) also gets amped up by sugar. When we feel down, depressed, stressed, unhappy or need an escape, flooding the system with sugar can help to temporarily change our internal environment. The trouble is that sugar is like jet fuel: it burns hot and fast. Once the body has overcome the flood of sugar, the natural levels in the bloodstream are even lower than where they were before the sugar rush. A signal from the brain says "hey, running out of juice up here, need more of that feel good stuff!" and off we go to find another fix. The trick here is to short circuit the response and reach for foods that increase natural serotonin rather than settle for the quick fix that only temporarily bandaids the situation. In this case, reach for protein. The best choices would be eggs, turkey, elk, pork, crab, shrimp, and salmon (vegetarian options include 200 kcal portions of spirulina, spinach, and watercress) because they are high in tryptophan which is what the body uses to create serotonin.

There are whole manifestos available on the detrimental effects of food additives and toxic residues out there so I won't go into a dissertation here. (If you are interested in a few good references check out "Aspartame Disease" by H. J. Roberts; "Excitotoxins: the taste that kills" by Russell Blaylock; "Diet for a Poisoned Planet" by David Steinman; and "Sweet Deception" by Joseph Mercola). Suffice it to say, each of these toxins has an impact. If you are susceptible, the way they are incorporated into your system will have worse effects. For example, there are case studies showing that you can actually fool your doctor into believing you have multiple sclerosis by ingesting just the right amount of aspartame (aka Nutrasweet). Aspartame is actually a drug, not a food, and we are misusing it in America. Artificial sweeteners are the worst offenders largely because they have become so common in foods. I urge you to get these toxins out of your diet, and especially out of the food supply for children. We are already seeing dire consequences of long term use, and I hate to see what's in store for our teens who are gulping down gallons of diet sodas.

Take control of the sweet portion of your food supply and you will solve big groups of issues including the craving for the sweet taste itself. It takes about 2-4 weeks. That's all. But you have to be vigilant. If you need help, enlist a good nutritionist to walk you through the process. Making changes to the way you look at, think about, shop for, prepare, and eat food is extremely difficult. It's not as easy as "just do it". There are so many reasons WHY we eat and in order to get a handle on some of the biggies, it's ok to ask for help. Sugar and sweet cravings are biggies. It's not just about willpower so stop beating yourself up. It's about biochemistry and learning to create the internal environment you want.

Get Smart. Get Fresh. Get Real.

Medicinal Effects of Foods - Part 2

Ever done an "unintentional cleanse"? You know, that one-strawberry-too-many warning gurgle? That I-love-tomatoes-so-much-I-can't-stop-eating-them oops-gotta-go? It's that time of year here on the West Coast when the fresh fruits and veggies start rolling in by the bushel and I get a little too excited about some of them, especially those strawberries... So why do they do that? What's the deal with the "flush"?

As mentioned in Part 1, depending on amount, what we ingest can be sustenance, pharmacological or toxic. That innocent strawberry actually contains a number of toxins that it creates to help ensure that at least some of it's seeds have a chance to grow to new plants. If the strawberry can't protect itself against slugs and earwigs and snails in some way, then it's chances of survival as a species are slim. Some of those toxins are at doses too low to be problematic for the human body. But interestingly enough, something we think of as benign can become a toxin that overwhelms the body's ability to process it: fructose.

Fructose is one of the most common naturally occurring sugars in our food supply. It has benefits in relatively small doses as a fuel source for the metabolically active tissues of the body. It takes a bit longer to be broken down though and the system in charge of this process is easily overwhelmed. When the amount of fructose to be broken down builds up faster than the body can process it, a shift occurs which ultimately is like the internal disassembly crew throwing up their hands and giving up then pressing the emergency eject button on the contents of the gut to get rid of the excess -- and off you run to the potty.

Other foods that can have this effect usually have either a relatively high amount of fructose, or are high in soluble fiber. The two big categories of fiber are soluble and insoluble. The first acts in the gut like a sponge, soaking up excess fats, pulling in toxins to be removed, and pulling out excess water. The second acts like a scrubby as it passes through the intestines giving you a good cleaning out as it moves along. The soluble fiber's ability to absorb water is the culprit when it comes to causing an episode of diarrhea. Because it pulls water into the gut, high amounts of soluble fiber can create a very stool watery consistency. The intestines don't work well when the contents are too loose, so again, the emergency eject button gets pushed and off you skip to the loo again. Often people I work with have the opposite issue of constipation which generally can be dramatically improved by increasing both water and soluble fiber intake, both of which are sorely lacking in the "standard American diet" (aka SAD).

The other main ingredient that can have laxative effects on the gut is caffeine. Many people around the world have trained their guts to need a daily dose of caffeine in order to get moving. The reason for this is that caffeine is a powerful stimulant for peristalsis and acts as a diuretic. There are two main types of movements that the intestinal muscles produce, peristalsis and mass movements. Peristalsis is like a kneading action that pushes a blob of food back and forth against the intestinal lining exposing the contents to as many areas available for nutrient absorption as possible. Then, kind of like musical chairs, there is a signal and all the food blops move downstream a ways in a "mass movement" to be kneaded again. If you have a lot of caffeine, you increase the rate of kneading and you increase the amount of water that is taken out of circulation, some of which empties into the gut. This increase in fluid and movement can also cause that regular stop at the restroom about 20 minutes after your morning cuppa mud.

Of course, each of these effects can be employed on purpose to relieve relatively minor constipation. They can also be little reminders that you are over-indulging. I'm just happy to be in the midst of strawberry cleanse season! Be sure your strawberries are organic though, especially now with the new carcinogenic pesticides being approved for conventional strawberry crops... sigh... Eat REAL...

Medicinal Effects of Foods - Part 1

As one of my dear friends and colleagues Jonathan Treasure says, the same substances can be food, medicine, or poison depending on amounts. This is a very important point that I try to make with my clients (and family and friends!). Just because something is "natural" doesn't mean there aren't potentially life threatening consequences in large amounts. Take alcohol as an easy example. It is a natural substance which in small quantities can be medicinal and in larger quantities becomes toxic (if you've never had a hangover, just watch the nature programs that show elephants and monkeys getting drunk on fermenting fruits). At high enough doses, alcohol becomes a poison that can kill you by causing total nervous system depression thereby shutting off vital communication that keeps the heart beating and the lungs breathing. As I mentioned in a previous post, what I find fascinating is when normally bright and intelligent people say to me "well it's natural and I was feeling better so I thought I'd take twice the dose to feel twice as good"... yeah... Hemlock is natural too...

It is important to understand that the vast majority of the medications we take were derived from the natural world, at least at the beginning. Aspirin is derived originally from the bark of the white willow which is high in salicylic acid. Scientists started to create this acid in the laboratory cheaply and now it's available over the counter as aspirin. One of the problems is that salicylic acid causes internal bleeding both by damaging the gastric and gut mucosa (which you can't feel until the damage is severe), and by inhibiting platelet formation which is essential for proper clotting. And yes, even that 81mg "baby aspirin" causes these problems. There are ways to protect the mucosa from these detrimental effects, one of which is to pre and post medicate with l-glutamine powder or capsules.

Interestingly, there are common foods that are high in salicylic acid. Those with greater than 1 milligram per 100 grams (or about 3.5 ounces) include: green peppers, olives, mushrooms, tomatoes, radishes, apricots, blueberries, blackberries, cantaloupe, dates, raisins, guava, almonds and peanuts. Spices that also contain greater than 1 mg per 100g are: cumin, curry, dill, garam masala, oregano, hot paprika, rosemary, thyme, turmeric, and mustard. This is when your spice cabinet becomes your medicine cabinet! The salicylic acid content is in large part the reason why these foods and spices are anti-inflammatory. However, eaten alone, they can aggravate gastric symptoms in susceptible people.

So this is another good reason to combine foods when creating meals. When consumed with foods that contain l-glutamine (a common amino acid) and foods that provide good sources of minerals, salicylic acid is easier for the body to handle because of the healing effects of the l-glutamine and buffering effect of minerals. Good food sources for l-glutamine include: eggs, pork, dairy products, wheat germ and oats. Good sources of magnesium (which is the active ingredient in most antacids by the way) are barley, buckwheat, oats, almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, black beans, white beans and navy beans.

Starting to sound like another plug for eating REAL FOOD? You betcha!