Category: Food as Medicine

Now More Than Ever—Raw Milk! (+Kefir Recipe)

A few years ago, Stephanie Selene Anderson, a very wise woman who also happens to be my publisher and friend, strongly suggested to me that I write about the difference between cultured dairy products (namely yogurt, kefir, and cultured cream) made from pasteurized milk and those made from raw milk. To put it simply, the former is in no…


Natural Cough and Sore-Throat Remedies

Bad throat? Here’s some relief.


Oats May Be the Most Underrated Ingredient in Your Pantry — Here’s Why

One of the healthiest, most underrated superfoods out there? Oats. Ask any dietitian or doctor and they’ll tell you that you should be absolutely be eating more of them. They’re incredibly versatile, affordable and shelf-stable as well as nutritious. You can serve oatmeal sweet or savory; hot or cold (pardon, “overnight”). Stir in cinnamon, nut…


The Ups and Downs of the Sun Hormone

There has been a lot of discussion about vitamin D circulating among natural health enthusiasts recently. As a certified functional medicine practitioner, vitamin D status is something that I monitor very closely. Vitamin D is actually a hormone, specifically a prohormone that the body converts into a steroid hormone. It’s synthesized in the skin from…


The Nutritional Magic in Orange Foods

“What should I eat?” is a question every parent hears, often several times per day. My teen stood by the open refrigerator, hanging on the door, sighing loudly. “Mo-om, I’m hungry,” he said. “There’s nothing good in here. What should I eat?” A car needs the right kind of gas to run smoothly. Humans need…


Turmeric: A Wellness Promoting Tonic At Low Doses, Research Reveals

Turmeric has legendary status as a disease-fighting agent, but did you know that when administered in low doses to already healthy adults it significantly improves their wellness?  Over the years, there has been plenty of research performed on the value of natural substances in treating human diseases, but very little has been conducted on the effects of…


How the Food You Eat Triggers a Hormonal Response: A Tale of Three Hormones

Insulin, Glucagon and Eicosanoids Food is really the most efficient hormone delivery system. Simply put, different types of food affect different types of hormones, which are chemical messengers. This is why most of my programs and diet plans evolve around a 40-30-30 breakdown, which translates into 40 percent of calories from wholesome and essential fats,…


4 Legit Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate

You’ve seen the chocolate-is-healthy headlines — and who wouldn’t want to buy into them? Looking for license to eat decadent goodness? Here are some facts on the health benefits of dark chocolate backed by research: nothing funded by chocolate companies and no small, one-off studies without a larger body of research backing them up. Take…


Avoiding Gluten is Harder Than You Think

Have you tried a “gluten-free” diet and it didn’t work? Maybe it didn’t help you lose weight or reverse your symptoms. Or, perhaps you felt better for a short period of time but then your symptoms returned. If that sounds familiar, it’s possible that gluten is problematic for you, but you made the mistake of…


The Link Between Fast Food and Cancer

The Research Is In European researchers studied the diets of 471,495 adults from ten different European countries using the innovative new British Nutrient Profiling System called Nutri-Score. Nearly 50,000 of these adults (49,794) were newly diagnosed with cancer. And what they found was definitive. Junk food diets lead to a higher risk of colorectal, stomach cancers,…