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Category Archives: Health Symptoms

The Art of Food Combining

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food combining explained

You asked for it. I just hope you really want to know: How we eat may be just as important as what we eat—depending on your health and health goals. Food is your #1 ally. While certain supplements can help certain situations, supplements cannot make up for poor diet. Most Americans believe that any number of different foods can be digested at the same time. Well, this isn’t what’s meant by food combining and may be why more than half of us suffer from some sort of digestive distress that no manner of elimination or medication can seem to fix. … Continue reading →

Therapeutic foods: the gut-brain connection

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Food is Therapeutic. I love sharing good solid nutrition, rather than profit-based nutrition. Thought provoking… real… information, recipes, occasional book finds, and other things that you—the person seeking to rebalance health starting by rebalancing eating—finds really useful. Which brings me to today’s topic, beets! As a member of several professional groups focused on functional medicine and integrated nutrition, just about every day I get an email or six asking my thoughts about handling bloating, digestive upset…. more… or brain fog, tiredness, headaches, anxiety… more… A recent holistic health practitioner wrote: “Hello! I need some help figuring out my client’s brain fog and fatigue. She sent me this info … Continue reading →

Sneaking sugars into kefir??

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Coconut milk kefir probiotic

“You put sugar in your kefir, right?” (I’m sorry—did I hear that right????) “Well I was over buying coconut milk kefir and she said you put sugar in yours, that’s why her’s is better.” There I was, enjoying the company of the great clients who turned out for the first ever Fermentapalooza over at the Alaska Health Improvement Center, and suddenly there was this “You put sugar in your kefir?” question / statement. I am the mother who helps an entire football team develop iron-man stamina by finding alternates to sugary Gatorade, who applauds schools like Spring Hill in Anchorage for … Continue reading →

Feel satisfied: Five ways to fill “hedonic hunger”

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plant-based diet, SCD diet, GAPS diet, body ecology, anchorage nutritionist

Not a “Top Six Hunger-suppressing Foods” post or even a “7 Foods to Control Cravings” post, hunger is the number one reason people fail at dieting so let’s look at another angle on it. One of my client last week asked me why it was so hard to achieve her goals. So we had to take a good hard look at the emotional connection of food as she frowned when I pointed out that while switching to maple syrup is a better choice than cane sugar, continuing to consume an average 34 teaspoons per day is still not healthy yet this … Continue reading →

My child can’t behave: 10 tips to handle the food additive connection.

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During the 1970s the headlines read: food additives drug children—and result in drugging children, researchers say. But this wasn’t enough to convince health policy or medical professionals, creating a confusion for parents. During the 1980s headlines read: New research shows possible link between food additives and hyperactivity. During the 1990s we put a name on it: Possible ADHD link with food dyes and additives according to new research. And so it goes… Except none of it is “headline” news given Theron Randolf published her observations “Allergy as a causative factor of fatigue, irritability, and behavior problems in children” in the Journal of … Continue reading →

Obesity: the making of an epidemic

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Not just in the US, all around the world, obesity and related problems like high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes are at levels we’ve never before seen. More people are now overweight than underfed. Surprisingly, a person can have normal weight yet still be over fat—still have excessive fat inside their body surrounding their organs. Why is this bad? Because the deep fat—the intra-abdominal or visceral fat as it is called—also becomes a sponge for toxic chemicals. The concentration of fat-stored toxins can be 1000’s of times higher than that circulating in your blood as demonstrated by my dear … Continue reading →

US Food Additives cause 80% of our food to be banned in other countries

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Shopping for additive-free food

The story is very clear: Food additives make children hyperactive. A definitive study published in The Lancet clearly shows that food colors and preservatives (sodium benzoate) make normal children hyperactive—half of whom were age 3 and the other half ages 8/9. In my practice, I’ve seen this in many, many adults. Our nation’s love of easy, cheap and fast is unique. It isn’t done this way in most other places. In fact 80% of pre-packaged foods sold in the United States are actually banned in other nations. And for good reason. Whether it’s toxic soda brands like Mountain Dew, or sugary … Continue reading →

Sunscreen & Bug Spray—Oh My!

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Summer is just far too short! It is that rare time when we Alaskans get to slather on the sunscreen and bug repellent and … hold the presses! Sunscreen and bug repellent?! Sure, I understand the evening mosquito warfare problem; and getting some summer sunlight is pretty important, but isn’t there a better way? Before it’s too late, let’s take apart the Vitamin D, sunlight and bug spray myths once and for all: Myth #1. Sun exposure is bad for you. Truth #1: Direct sunshine is healthy. Although overdoing it and burning your skin is most definitely a bad idea … Continue reading →

The Wonders of Real Maple Syrup

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buckwheat pancakes with blueberries and real maple syrup health

Before I’m accused of backtracking on 50,000+ times of saying “sugar is bad,” let me just say it again: Sugar is bad. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way… let me also say… not all sugars are created equal. Maple syrup health properties are very interesting. Alright, why is sugar so bad… There are some sugars that just should never, ever be consumed. Cane sugar in any form (raw, turbinado, concentrated juice, organic or otherwise…) and corn sugar (also known as high fructose corn syrup). Why? Because they create an immediate inflammatory response in the body that is … Continue reading →

Coconut Milk Nutrition

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coconut milk nutrition

Wondering about the great nutrients in a cup of coconut milk? Do we need to dispel false data that says coconut is anything but amazing? Here’s the list and why I use it in everything from Coconut Milk Kefir to Coconut Milk Yogurt to Coconut Curry Seafood Stew. Oh, almost forgot, Chocolate “Moose” cakes. You really have to try these. Yum. There is a world of good in a beautiful coconut… 240 mg of coconut milk (one cup serving) contains: Calcium Approximately 40 mg of absorbable calcium (perhaps more important than the amount of calcium in a product is whether … Continue reading →

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