I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I’ve never paid much attention to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. Rather, when it comes to myself and my family, I rely on my self-health education, gathering information from reliable sources, paying attention, asking questions about what we need at any given time, and adjusting as […]
Back in June, I wrote a post to help me answer a question: is starting a garden really worth it? Gardening, I discovered, is no joke! Much more work than I originally thought goes into preparing and planting. Yet despite that, the answer is yes, it really is worth it. Now that the gardening season is […]
Rice pudding will always hold a special place in my heart. I loved to prepare it as a child. I’d always ask my mum to make extra basmati rice for dinner just so I could make dessert with the leftovers. The creamy, custard-like texture, the aroma of the spices and vanilla, and the chew of […]
Possibly since the dawn of our humanity, hidden yet very real energies have existed that can generate instant physical healing, help control chronic pain, and give us the power of metanoia (the instantaneous changing of our minds or overcoming damaging habits). What would you think if I said you could access the phenomenal effects of […]
Last week, I was seeking inspiration for dinner. The weather had changed a bit. After months of hot and dry days, it was crisp and cool, and I couldn’t shake the yearning for a pot of stew or chili. Browsing through some of my old favorites, I remembered a dish I’d always loved but hadn’t […]
I often hear people using the words vaccination and immunization as if they were interchangeable. Plucking one of them out of a sentence and plopping the other in its place. But is it that simple? Are they the same thing? Don’t worry, I’m not about to dive into the debate of childhood vaccinations. I avoid […]
Because of the amazing healing capacity of herbs, I’ve been able to regain my health after a serious battle with lupus and other autoimmune diseases. Knowing what I’ve been through, friends and family often come to me with their questions. What herb should my aunt take for her lupus? What herb can I take for […]
Now that the equinox has passed, fall is officially in full swing. And with that, so is football season. I’ve never been much of a sport spectator, and I don’t really understood the intense passion that people have for football. There, I said it. Sorry, guys. But! I do get the camaraderie of sitting around […]
“You need to add more salt into your diet.” Those are words we rarely hear. Yet much to my surprise that’s just what our clinical nutritionist recently told me. I was discussing some odd symptoms I’d been experiencing, and after asking me a series of questions, she explained that my sodium and potassium levels were […]
Have you ever adopted an animal from a shelter or rescue group? Ever found a stray on the street to bring to your forever home? Well I have. When I was seven years old and out shopping with my mom, we ran into a pen of puppies that a local shelter was putting up for […]
Looking at the vast number of articles, podcasts, and blog posts out there about gluten, it seems that our flight from this substance is becoming more and more of the “in” thing. I wonder if this trend is just a temporary craze or if there’s something more to be understood here. Unfortunately, not enough of […]
I first came across the spiralizer—that nifty contraption that quickly creates long strands of julienned vegetables and fruit—at a trade show years ago, well before the thing became a regular item in households. At that time, to be honest, it seemed like just another bulky item to add to my list of one-use devices that […]
With all of the discussion out there about how more and more of us are dealing with anxiety and depression, it’s hard not to wonder what other treatments we can turn to besides traditional pharmaceuticals and talk therapy. A question that’s been bouncing around in my head for a while now is: What role does […]
Originally published in Nutrition News and Views, Vol. 20, No. 2, March-April 2016, “Whole Versus Parts” will be featured in the third edition of Judith DeCava’s The Real Truth About Vitamins and Antioxidants, available from Selene River Press in 2019. Many supplement makers, food fortifiers, and scientists would like us to believe that our bodies […]
Matthew Walker’s important new book Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams offers readers an in-depth discussion of why we spend a third of our lives in bed. In lively and personable language, he explains all of the latest research about sleep and dreams. Scientists at several top universities have discovered that […]
I never thought I’d welcome fall as much as I do this year. See, I’m that girl that holds on to every last bit of daylight, sunshine, and heat from the summer, refusing to admit the seasons are changing as I freeze my butt off in flip-flops on a November morning. Yet here I am, […]
Every time our family relocates and we start seeing new health care practitioners, something intriguing happens: one of them always has an important new concept to share with us. Not necessarily new to their field of expertise, but new—as in, none of our other practitioners focused on this particular “thing” before. California is no different. […]
If there’s one thing I see a great deal of in my chiropractic clinic in Anchorage, Alaska, its chronic pain. Whether it’s joint pain, the pain of arthritis or fibromyalgia, or low back pain, what they all have in common is inflammation. What Is Inflammation? Many people think of inflammation as a bad thing, but in truth it’s a natural response from the immune system that helps protect […]
No other event has done more to bring the teachings of the greatest nutritionist of the twentieth century, Dr. Royal Lee, to a modern audience than Mark Anderson’s Back to School for Doctors. Every year this annual seminar manages to transform Dr. Lee’s body of work into a relevant, living tradition of holistic nutrition that […]
I can just see every psychiatrist, psychologist, and even many holistic practitioners wondering if I’ve gone off the deep end by introducing the idea that maybe, just maybe, the excessive and sometimes irrational anxiety and fear experienced by millions of people in our society could be caused by a set of really bad habits. Yes, […]