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Plant-based eating: 7 ways to get more vegetables in your day.

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While proteins and fats provide cell building blocks, vegetables provide most of the cofactors that make everything work. From building healthy cells to cleaning out the waste of day-to-day activity, including vegetables in your diet is extremely important. Veggies are incredibly rich in nutrients and antioxidants, which boost your health and help fight off disease. Ounce-for ounce (or calorie for calorie) you get more “bang for the buck” when you make sure to include plenty of veggies while you meet your other nutritional needs. Amazingly, health authorities recommend only several servings of vegetables each day. Even more amazingly, most people … Continue reading →

Think fast: what the pH?

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Diagram of entire digestive tract including nutrients absorbed in each section

Thanks go to three of my clients who just this week asked questions about alkaline diet foods and pH: What the pH? Skin care commercials tell us their product will balance our skin, so-called “clean eating” blogs promote “alkaline diet foods”, designer bottled water companies and aggressive multi-level-marketing water filter companies promote alkaline waters, or maybe you retained a basic understanding of pH from biology or chemistry. The idea of an alkaline pH is trendy and in large print on labels. But what does being “pH balanced” or “too acidic” or “alkaline” or even “too alkaline” really mean? And, why … Continue reading →

Powerhouse fruits and veggies list: more nutrient dense for the calories

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I thought only my Eating to Restore Balance group knew the truth about our Fourth Food Group—veggies—until now that is. So first of all, applaud yourself for entering the produce section and making some selections—based on the shopping carts I stand next to in the check-out line, you are already special. But now there is a tool if you’re looking to know which are the highest ranked powerhouse fruits and vegetables, foods most strongly associated with reduced chronic disease risk, on a nutrient density scale. See, creatures of habit, we tend to head to the store and pick the same old familiar … Continue reading →

RAGE about AGE: The cancer connection

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Cancer cells with RAGE

Back in the day of being a bench scientist studying how cells work, how a single fertilized cell eventually becomes skin, eye, muscle, adipose… how our bodies routinely detect and destroy improperly formed cells, and even clean out those that die when their time is up to make way for new, healthy tissue; back then never a day went by without a remarkable new finding at a deeply biochemical/molecular level. Sadly, so much of that fascinating work can only be understood by those of us who speak the language of science and molecular biology. Yet, their are times when an important … Continue reading →

Gah! Menopausal spread. (Shhhh… it happens to guys too)

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solve obesity, weight loss, hormone imbalance

Isn’t working out five times a week enough to avoid weight gain? And what is setting off that midnight (and morning, and after lunch, and before dinner… ) heat? Susan hadn’t changed her calories—or her workouts—since graduating college. But there it was: that pudge, bulge, and mid-section ten starting in her late 40’s. Why? Anne just wouldn’t lose weight no matter how hard she tried. After learning that midsection fat is the most likely to be associated with chronic inflammation and other health problems, she was ready to change and tried every diet—but her weight wasn’t. Why? Hormones out of whack … Continue reading →

Appreciation & Gratitude: Thoughts for the New Year

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What will guarantee a happy marriage? Or friendship? Or smooth family? Life is dynamic, we grow and change, there is free will. However, a recent study is suggests there might be a key ingredient in the happiest of relationships. Two rules for happy living: Be able to experience anything. Cause only those things which others are able to experience easily. —L.Ron Hubbard Think about it. Hard to do, but if we could? And is there some magic that makes this possible? One of you really wants to talk about a problem and the other one really doesn’t. Sound familiar? Usually … Continue reading →

The definitive seed, bean, and nut soaking guide

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In more than a few recipes I talk about soaking or sprouting seeds and beans. In my Eating to Restore Balance class, I mention soaking seeds, beans, and nuts Why? A long list of health benefits you soak your grains, beans, nuts and seeds: Break down phytic acid Neutralize enzyme inhibitors Eliminate or reduce lectins, gluten, tannins, goitrogens, and other anti-nutrients that contribute to unwanted problems Activate enzymes that help digest food and released nutrients Increase nutrient content, especially vitamin B and anti-oxidants Break down hard-to-digest proteins in cereal grains—if you must have cereal grains Increase your digestive tract’s ability … Continue reading →

Soaring health insurance costs? Four strategies to lessen the pain.

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With health insurance costs through the roof, read on for ways to lower your premiums. Mike came to see me, near tears. He’s had to pull money from what he’d hoped to save for his daughter’s college to cover his $1500/month family health insurance premiums now required under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Sarah was enraged—“I’m 23, very healthy, I work hard, my premium skyrocketed 78 percent in one year!” Over a decade ago I had to get my own health insurance—I stepped off the corporate treadmill and again had my own family business. At that time, ObamaCare didn’t exist; there … Continue reading →

Solving the weight loss puzzle

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solve obesity, weight loss, hormone imbalance

Solving the weight loss puzzle There are so many different diet and exercise plans to help us lose weight—almost a new one every day. Why? Because none of them actually work. Think about it. While there are certainly healthy ways to achieve your weight goals—the trick is to optimize your metabolism, the rate at which your body burns fuel—being overweight is a symptom. It takes more to address this than the one-size-fits-all programs you can read in a book or accomplish in a few weeks with some nutrishakes or low-calorie foods. Weight loss can’t be packaged and sold for cheap in bulk to the masses—with all … Continue reading →

Gut Health Check: We’re Only 10% Human

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2000 years have passed since Hippocrates said that “all disease begins in the gut“. I certainly can’t disagree with that wisdom. That’s why I’ve created the individualized 21-day metabolic reset (a.k.a. the Rejuveo Cleanse) and also my 4-week Eating to Restore Balance class. Overlooking gut health may make or break all other health programs. And gut health depends directly (and, in my professional opinion, only) on what you eat.  Ask yourself these gut-health questions: Do you have food sensitivities? Do you ever experience brain fog? Do you have symptoms of slow thyroid? Are your stubborn pounds refusing to budge? Do you have any … Continue reading →

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