Real Food Returns
I have had SO many requests for a user friendly book about how to eat. This is my top recommendation. The first reason, to be honest, is that she agrees with me: our research comes to the same conclusions. Nina Planck is a food activist. This book rebuts dietary fads, calling for a long overdue return to traditional and real food. She has chapters on produce, dairy, meat, fish and other traditional foods. The one I especially liked was about real milk and butter. She explains how ancient foods like beef and butter have been falsely accused of being health hazards. She shows that industrial foods like corn syrup and soybean oil have created an epidemic of chronic disease. This is a fascinating read that tells an engaging personal story about her journey with food. This will inspire you to get back to eating real food in your life.
Soy, A Cautionary Tale
During my years as a vegetarian,
my primary source of protein was tofu. This was even before the soy food industry inundated us with propaganda about the supposed health benefits of soy, and encouraged everyone to eat huge amounts of it. I just thought since it was a bean, contained lots of protein, very little fat, and most importantly was NOT meat, it must be good for me. Like so many who fall prey to this thinking, I was misled and naive. (more…)
Kick the (synthetic) Vitamin Habit
Everyone wants to be healthy. Most people take some sort of vitamin supplement, assuming it will help them stay healthy, or improve their health. We are advised by “holistic” practitioners, as well as health food store clerks and on-line health coaches, to take mega doses of antioxidants and other vitamins. Everyone seems to at least be taking a multivitamin, “just to be on the safe side.” I am writing this to persuade you to stop this unhealthy and possibly dangerous practice. Here’s why: (more…)
The Truth About Salt and Your Digestion
I specialize in digestive health, so you may be wondering why this post about salt. Salt is all about high blood pressure, and it’s always bad, right? Nope, wrong on both counts. Salt has a lot to do with good digestion, and there is actually very little research to connect salt with high blood pressure. Here’s the deal….. (more…)
Why I Eat Dirt
Every morning for some years now, I’ve gotten up early and performed the same ritual. It goes like this: Measure one teaspoon of dirt (actually it’s special dirt, but more about that later,) into a glass, fill with water, stir, and drink it down. Swirl a little extra water in the glass to dissolve that last bit of gritty mud at the bottom, and chug down the last of it. Mmmmm……great way to start the day. (more…)
More misguidance from government dietary “guidelines”
I was appalled last week to read the news that government dietary “experts,” (who are these people anyway?) are at it again. In the annual revision of its dietary recommendations, the USDA has solicited advice from a panel of nutritional experts. This panel advises that in the face of alarming increases in the nation’s obesity levels, we should further reduce fat intake, especially saturated fat, and increase consumption of whole grains. There are so many dangerous fallacies to this approach that I have quoted below the entire text of the Weston A Price Foundation’s response. Nobody says it better, so here it is: (more…)
New Office in Soquel
If you live anywhere near Santa Cruz, California, please check out my new office location at the Soquel Health Center. I’ll be there Fridays until June, and then Tuesdays and Fridays. I’m looking forward to having a local practice in addition to my two days a week in San Jose. In the new office I’ll be working with two chiropractors and a physical therapist. Here’s the contact information:
Soquel Health Center, 2930 S. Main St., Soquel, CA. 95073.
For appointments call (831) 475-2230.
Osteoporosis Drug Linked to Leg Breaks
I’ve been ranting about this for years, and now doctors are finally admitting it. The very drugs that are currently prescribed to treat osteoporosis, are in fact making bones weaker and are now being blamed for an alarming increase in femur breaks among women who use them. (See the news story about this ). (more…)
Enzyme Power–Improving Digestion, part 4
There is a lot of confusion about enzymes. On the one hand, raw food enthusiasts insist that all cooked food is bad for you because the enzymes are destroyed by heat, resulting in “dead” food that is difficult to digest. Then there is another view (promoted in Chinese Medicine,) that says too much raw food “chills the spleen,” (i.e. inhibits pancreatic output,) and makes for chronic indigestion and malabsorption. The truth lies somewhere in between. (more…)
