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3 Reasons to Plant Heirloom Seeds This Spring

3/15/2015

If you're anything like me, you love an uplifting, feel-good story about taking back control of our food supply - and this one comes just in time for spring planting! Whether you're a fan of Forks Over Knives, Food, Inc., or Fresh, you need to check out the new documentary, Open Sesame: The Story Of Seeds. This may be one of the most important food documentaries out there, as it tells a story that affects each and every one of us, no matter what your dietary beliefs, preferences, or choices are.

Everything starts with a seed. As it says in the movie, "without seeds, nothing else would exist." Whether you're a vegan, vegetarian, or omnivore like me, you and your food exist because of seeds. Everything you eat comes from a seed - even animals, which are fed on plants that come from seeds.

Yet you may be shocked to learn that 90% of the vegetable seed varieties in existence 100 years ago are now extinct! (I shared a helpful visual of this a couple of years ago on our sustainable gardening blog.)

The loss of seed diversity may seem like a shame, but how does it really affect you? In truth, it's actually a grave danger to our survival as a species (see #1 below).

The good news is, there IS something you can do about it: Plant heirloom or open-pollinated seeds!

Here Are 3 Reasons Why You Should Grow Heirloom Seeds This Year:

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The Surprising Truth About Calories & Weight Loss

3/1/2015

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Hot on the heels of last week's "shocking" announcement about cholesterol comes another long-overdue gem of health insight - this time from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

A recent article in the Journal announced that it is possible to get fatter without eating more, and conversely, that it is also possible to lose weight without eating less. (And no, this is not factoring in exercise.)

This flies in the face of approximately 100 years of mainstream advice on obesity and weight gain, which has only considered amount of calories consumed versus calories burned. In truth, like most things about health, the reality is much more complex than that!

In fact, weight gain (and loss) has a lot more to do with the type of calories consumed, and their effect on blood sugar, than you may have guessed. So how does this work? Let me explain....

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It's Official: Government To Declare Cholesterol Okay

2/22/2015

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The timing seems a bit fishy, coming right on the heels of our recent post about eggs.... Is the government reading our blog and stealing my ideas?? LOL! But yes indeed, apparently the U.S. government is revising dietary guidelines to say that eating cholesterol is actually okay, according to last week's article in the Washington Post.

This comes after 40+ years of cholesterol being the beloved villain of the media, doctors, and government warnings, but apparently, according to the co-chair of the task force arranged by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association in 2013 to look at dietary cholesterol studies, “Looking back at the literature, we just couldn’t see the kind of science that would support dietary restrictions."

Really??

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Why Eggs Are Better For You Than You Think...

1/25/2015

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A common New Year's Resolution is to eat healthier, but of course this often doesn't last long, as over the years, we seem to have developed a warped sense of what is actually "healthy" when it comes to food, and what we think of as "healthy" often doesn't taste all that great. After all, who wants to eat "low-fat" (i.e. low-flavor) foods all the time? The good news is, truly healthy food tastes awesome! So you can actually eat well, and enjoy your food! But first you have to learn how to tell what healthy food really is - which is one of the reasons I started this blog in the first place.

A great example - and one I will explain in more detail today - is the oft-vilified egg. I have defended eggs on many occasions, but I haven't written about them in a while, and I thought it would be a good topic to revisit, with all the talk of healthy eating going around at the start of the new year.

So just why did eggs get such a bad rap? And what is the real deal with cholesterol? Read on to find out the truth about eggs - and what they actually do for your health....

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A Free Gift for 2015 - Avoid These 5 Detox Scams

1/11/2015

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Many people start off the New Year with resolutions to improve their health. Exercise is a common goal, but so is cleansing/detoxing and losing weight. A healthy, safe detoxification program can be a great way to improve your health this year - but you've got to make sure you're choosing the right one. A lot of the so-called "detox" programs out there are at best ineffective, and at worst, actually harmful to your health.

Many of our readers often ask how to find detoxification programs that are actually safe and healthy, so this week, to kick off 2015 on a healthy foot, we're offering all of our readers and subscribers a FREE e-book on how to avoid these scams, and choose a detox program that is actually safe and works naturally with your body to eliminate toxins and improve your overall health. Read on to find out how you can grab your free copy.

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3 Tips for Healthy & Happy Eating This Holiday Season

12/21/2014

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'Tis the season for holiday feasting, and visions of this week's Christmas dinner may be already dancing in your head. Unfortunately, for many people, along with the visions most likely comes the guilt. After all, we all "know" that this is the time of year when it is hardest to stick to our most well-intentioned goals for health and fitness. This time of year is when even hard-core dieters fall off the wagon, and the most passionate fitness enthusiasts find themselves putting on a few pounds. (Consequently, January is the time of year when all of those resolutions are resolutely made all over again - with the determination that, this year, we will actually stick to them.)

After all, between Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year's Eve - not to mention the recently departed Thanksgiving turkey - this is probably the month when the largest amount of food is consumed per capita. And much of this food is of the richer variety. Cookies, candies, pies, and other sugary treats show up everywhere from holiday parties, to the office cafeteria, to the gifts piled under the tree. Turkey, duck, ham, and other rich meats grace our dining room tables, and side dishes packed with potatoes, yams, pasta, cream, butter, cheese, and other "guilty pleasures" are par for the course. Is it any wonder that we leave the holidays not quite fitting into last year's clothes?

Well, I'm here to tell you to stop feeling guilty! The holidays come around once a year, and it is perfectly fine to enjoy them. There is no need to put a damper on your enjoyment by chastising yourself for what you're eating - especially if you follow these three tips for delicious, healthy eating this holiday season.

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Natural Immune-Boosting Recipe To Avoid Colds & Flu This Season

12/14/2014

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'Tis the season for sniffles and sneezes, but you can fight back by building a super strong immune system that will protect you from nasty colds and flu this winter. As we all know, the best cure is prevention, and your best way to prevent any type of illness is to build a rock-solid immune system that can fight off any germ or virus in record time. This week, we're sharing a healthy recipe chock-full of natural immune boosters, so you can take control of your health this year and stay healthy all year long!

Read on to find out more about these immune-boosting ingredients, and whip up a batch of the special recipe below to keep you healthy throughout the holidays and beyond.

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4 Tips for Saving Money & Eating Organic

11/16/2014

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Organic has become quite the buzzword in recent years, and most mainstream grocery stores now stock at least a small section of organic foods. The benefits of eating organically grown foods are many - from improved nutritional quality, to fewer ingested potentially harmful chemicals, to preserving beneficial soil microbes, to reduced pollution of the environment at large. But it can seem daunting if you are trying to feed a family on organic foods, as they often come at a premium when it comes to cost. However, there are definitely things you can do to make eating organic foods more affordable.

Here are 4 tips that can really help cut costs when it comes to buying organic:

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The Great GMO Experiment

10/12/2014

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One of the fiercest debates raging in the food community these days (or maybe ever), is the debate about genetically modified organisms - and particularly, foods. In truth, the debate is more about politics than it is about health, but health is where we need to start. The pro-GMO camp swears that GM foods are totally safe, while the other side counters with a range of arguments, from the seemingly reasonable contention that GM foods should be labeled as such, to the extreme position that GMOs could be the end of life on this planet.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you probably can guess that I fall somewhere in the middle. But I still think it's an important topic to address, especially considering how much of our food now contains genetically modified ingredients.

For one thing, the contentions that GMOs are "safe" for humans to eat really don't have a lot of long-term evidence to back them up.

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Good Trans Fats vs. Bad Trans Fats (Guest Post)

9/14/2014

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We're back!! I'm so sorry for the long absence! My husband and I moved into our new house a couple of weeks ago, and I had a guest post all lined up for you while we were moving, but we had some issues getting our internet set up, so I wasn't even able to post that unfortunately. It's great to be back in action, although we have a lot of work to do on the new house, and still a lot of unpacking to get done! While we're getting settled in, here's a great guest post for you from one of my favorite health and nutrition "gurus." He agreed to share some valuable and eye-opening information about one of the most misunderstood nutrients of our time - of course I'm talking about fat! And even more surprisingly, trans-fats....

You've probably heard of trans-fats, and most likely, what you've heard is that you should avoid them. But did you know that, as with most fats, there are good and bad kinds of trans fats? This week's post will attempt to clear up some of the confusion around trans fats, and expose the truth about which types of fat you really should be avoiding.

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