Laughter is good for the soul. And now it seems, is good for the heart too!  Laughter, outward chuckles, inward joy.  Laughing at a joke or a funny movie…anything that gives you pleasure.  There’s even laugh yoga and laughter workshops. Laughter helps relieve stress, enhances your mood, dissolves fear, lessons anxiety, contributes to team work, makes us attractive to others and more pleasant to be around.  And laughter can have physical side effects too.  Laughter will strengthen your immune system, reduce food cravings, increase your threshold for pain, release endorphins, lessen pain, decrease stress hormones, and lead to the general relaxation [...]

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease.  The lining of the small intestine is damaged from eating gluten and other proteins found in rye, barley, wheat and oats.  Some gastrointestinal symptoms are abdominal pain, bloating, gas and indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, lactose intolerance, nausea, vomiting, and weight loss.  There are also nonintestinal symptoms like: anemia, bone and joint pain, easy bruising, depression, fatigue, hair loss, skin disorders, seizures and malnutrition.  Symptoms can vary significantly from person to person.  Unfortunately a lot of these symptoms can mean a host of other disorders too. Celiac disease is also known as gluten sensitive enteropathy.  Gluten [...]

A new documentary was released recently called Raw For 30-Days.  It followed five Americans suffering from Adult Onset Type II Diabetes.  These participants underwent a radical 30-day diet and lifestyle change.  They were hoping to reverse their diabetes or reduce their insulin dependency.  All subjects were eating a standard American junk food diet and were insulin dependent and diabetic when they started this process.  They were taken to the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona to undergo a 30-day health regimen.  They ate 100% raw organic living foods that would reverse their Diabetes naturally.  They had to give up [...]

Have you asked yourself this question at any time?  I have and I used to take them at different times.  Usually when I found one on sale at the health food store or if my Mom happened to bring me a bottle from Hippocrates where she worked.  But I never felt like I needed one until recently.  More and more of us are finding benefits from nutritional and herbal supplements.  Sure, diet alone should be able to provide all the essential nutrition necessary for optimal health, but not many of us are eating a diet that could make that possible.  [...]

The American Dietetic Association recommends 25 grams of fiber daily for women and 38 grams for men.  Most of us are only getting 15 grams of fiber a day.  The World Health Organization extimates cardiovascular disease causes approximately 17.5 million deaths per year world-wide.  A vegetarian or living food lifestyle will greatly lower your incidence of heart disease than it will for meat eaters.  Saturated animal fats raise cholesterol levels and clog arteries.  Eating a well balanced vegetarian diet will give your body the heart-healthy nutrients it needs.  Foods like fruit, veggies, and whole grains are easy and fun to prepare [...]

I’ve been an emotional person for as long as I can remember.  But in pictures of me as a child, I always had a smile on my face.  No matter what was going on internally, I managed a smile for those around me.  That smile also hid the pain inside, the confusion, the internal dialogue, and the sadness.  As I grew up I learned how to hide it even more with eating, perfectionism and typical type A behavior.  Anything sound familiar yet?  Here I am in my late forties and perimenopause sneaks in over the last year and because of [...]

I am at a point in my life where I wonder…is there something else I could be doing to feel better?  It seems when I hit 40, it was harder to stay fit and healthy and another weird symptom appeared every month or so.  At 47, I am wondering about perimenopause, fatigue, my thyroid, weight gain, stiff and achy joints and even heart palpitations.  It is my intention here to share a little of what I am going through and maybe help you find some answers too.  My menstrual cycle started changing about a year ago.  Longer, shorter, heavier, lighter….all of [...]

In these times when we are hearing so much about swine flu, I thought I’d add my two cents regarding how I feel about the rumors and the lies being told.  To be honest, I don’t know which are lies and what is the truth about this issue.  I DO KNOW this, it is possible to protect and promote good health.  I also know that I have set a plan with my daughter in college just in case “they” come around and start requiring immunizations at her school (that’s not from a fear standpoint…that’s just common sense).  I will share [...]

Are you still asking what is MSG, not to mention consuming it?  Maybe I can help a little.  Let’s look at what it actually is and why it’s used in our food and then you can make a choice about whether you consume it or not. Monosodium glutamate, according to Wikipedia, (also known as MSG and sodium glutamate), “is a sodium salt of the non-essential amino acid glutamic acid.  It is used as a food additive and is commonly marketed as a flavour enhancer.”  Ingesting this processed free glutamic acid (MSG), can produce a variety of reactions in many people.  [...]

I’ve mentioned many times in this venue how raw, living food is what will allow the body to heal.  Not cooking your food keeps enzymes, oxygen and water content in your food, and therefore making it better able for your body to absorb.  Heating destroys nutrients and your food’s enzymes.  Heating also destroys water soluble vitamins like vitamin C and all the B vitamins.  I still eat a small amount of cooked food, but it just doesn’t taste the same anymore.  I’m eating more vegan food as well as high raw foods.  The past couple of weeks, since I’ve been moving around [...]