The condition of our gut determines every aspect of our mental and physical well-being. When our intestinal flora is out of whack, a multitude of health problems are quite sure to follow, from the obvious symptoms of sluggish and inefficient digestion to the potential for more serious problems, including auto-immune disorders, such as celiac sprue, and neurological imbalances, such as autism.

While we understand many health practitioners have their ways of testing and checking their patients’ health needs, sometimes it’s a good idea to do a refresher course on how to check for certain conditions. Maybe your adrenal stress testing needs a little boost, or your food allergy assessments are not quite getting the results you know you should be getting for your patients.

The healthiest and best-tasting bread is the bread you bake yourself—if you use freshly ground wheat, that is.

A 1958 article in Let's Live Magazine by Dr. Lee offers this advice: "The only wholesome bread is that made from wheat that has been ground into flour by a stone type mill within a few hours of its conversion to bread." Why? Because, as Dr. Lee notes, "whole wheat flour is as perishable as milk."

Gluten sensitivity is another demon in what seems an endless march of demons entering our lives each day that we eat farther from the Garden of Traditional Foods. Although many of us have become gluten sensitive, that is not the whole story.

I love homemade, freshly-pressed juices, but I always feel as if a lot of valuable fiber in the pulp is left behind after juicing. Between this and my juicer failing to extract much out of leafy greens, I set out to concoct a nutrient-rich vegetable smoothie instead. 

What a great gift for the Western Slope of Colorado. Lynne Mayer, CNC, and Dr. Carol Adams, DC, will be giving a seminar on a topic we get asked about all the time at Selene River Press related to nutritional needs for babies and children. It is shocking the lack of knowledge of the benefits that a whole foods diet provides at preconception and into early childhood.

I've always preferred butter and thought margarine was weird, but it's more than a matter of taste; it's a matter of health, particularly for prepubescent children.

Has anyone noticed the growth of government lately? Did you ever think you’d be looking over your shoulder just for making personal food choices?

What a pleasant surprise I got this morning when I woke to the sound of a delicious rain pattering outside my window. I’m always amazed at how much I miss everything about it—the smells, the sounds, the clean, fresh air, and even the wet, muddy shoes.

It is rare in this day and age to find people in the world of health and nutrition with as much experience and knowledge as Mark Anderson. For forty-one years, Mr. Anderson has been educating health practitioners about the teachings of Dr. Royal Lee, the brilliant nutritional leader whose works have withstood the test of time over the decades.

One of the most confounding beliefs of modern medicine is that a person is either completely lacking in a vitamin or not lacking it at all. The idea that there are in-between states of vitamin deficiency and that such "subclinical" deficiencies are the cause of common illnesses is perplexingly dismissed by the medical community.

By the time of the Roman Empire, 250 generations of farmers had already reduced the protective nutritional factors in our food, says author Jo Robinson. In this article, Robinson draws the history of food from much earlier beginnings than the previous 100 years we tend to look back on.

Sound the dinner bell; fresh salmon season has begun! 

It is finally happening: A four-decade ban on importing salumi from certain locales in Italy will end on May 28, 2013. Salumi is, of course, the name for Italian dried cured meats, most of them raw. This means enzymes in the meat, instead of being destroyed by heat, can break down proteins over months into a variety of amino acids that add both flavor and nutritional punch to these amazing delicacies.

The pasteurization of milk might be the most one-sided story ever sold. To hear it from proponents, pasteurization kills lethal pathogens naturally lurking in cow’s milk while delivering a nutritious, wholesome product to consumers. The commercial dairy industry has spun this yarn to great profit for nearly a century, but the truth is the unsanitary conditions that prompted pasteurization in the early 1900s are long gone. 

Where are the honeybees disappearing to? Scientists increasingly believe several interacting factors—from disease-carrying parasites to poor nutrition to pesticides—are responsible for the mass die-off. For instance, studies show that exposure to even nonfatal levels of neonicotinoids may make bees more susceptible to disease. But nothing makes a living creature more susceptible than malnutrition.

I like to make this luscious French stew once the frigid winter lets up, when asparagus and baby new potatoes are at their prime. By swapping out bone-in chicken pieces for boneless, skinless thighs, dinner can be on the table in around 45 minutes, but the depth of the velvety sauce tastes as if you had this simmering all day. If you have any favorite vegetables you’d like to add, the recipe is very flexible to additions. Fresh wild mushrooms or baby artichokes would be superb! Serve with a simple salad of baby greens or butter lettuce and a crusty baguette to round out the meal.

Hello, Billings, Montana!

Selene River Press and Standard Process West are pleased to sponsor the seminar “The Latest Advancements in Applied Clinical Nutrition” by Michael Gaeta on June 15, 2013. Dr. Gaeta will be lecturing on the following topics: The Autoimmune Process, The Original B-Complex, Lifestyle Solutions, and much more.

What are the symptoms of an overly acidic body? Or an overly alkaline one? And which factors truly determine the level of acidity in the body?

Soy infant formula should only be used as a last resort, says the Israeli Health Ministry, French Food Agency, German Institute of Risk Assessment, British Dietetic Association and other government health organizations around the world.