After a fun break last week to visit with family, I'm back to work and summer is in full swing! It's the season for grilling on the back deck, lying in the hammock in the shade, and enjoying all sorts of fresh summer fare...

It's funny to think about, but doesn't summer also seem like the season for condiments? From burgers, brats, and other grilled foods, to creamy coleslaw and potato salad, it just seems like summer provides the perfect occasion for enjoying lots of your favorite condiments.

Unfortunately, many of these popular toppings are packed with unhealthy ingredients that can increase inflammation, lower your immunity, increase weight gain and cravings, and more. The good news is, there are also a number of delicious condiments that are quite good for you and will add lots of tasty flavor to your favorite summer meals.

In the guest post below, nutrition specialist and personal trainer, Mike Geary, shares 5 healthier condiments you can enjoy with your summer meals this season - as well as 4 of the most popular ones that are best avoided if possible:

Most of us don't think much about the food we eat beyond what's for dinner. In fact, until recently, many people probably didn't even think about that. We live in a fast food nation, and millions of Americans eat out more often than they eat at home - at least, up until the recent pandemic hit and forced everyone to stay home and start cooking for themselves... 

Growing up on a farm, we thought about food a LOT. Since we grew and raised most of what we ate, thinking about food was a long-term proposition. In the summer and fall, we thought about how much of our garden produce we needed to can and preserve for the winter. When chicks hatched or baby goats were born in the spring, we thought about when and how to butcher and store the meat, and how long it would last our family of 5. Most of the foods we bought at the store were purchased in bulk (whole wheat, beans, dried fruit, oil, and animal feed), so we thought about how much to buy at a time to save the most money possible and make every purchase stretch as far as we could. In the spring, we tapped maples and boiled and bottled maple syrup. In the fall, we harvested honey from our bee hives and poured the thick golden sweetness into jars to last throughout the year.

When you raise your own food, your life becomes about food in many ways. This is a far cry from how most people in modern society approach food, and as we have shifted to a mindset of convenience over substance, speed over source, this has been considered "progress." But in a very real sense, distancing ourselves from our food has caused more problems than it has solved.

The truth is, no matter how much we deny or ignore it, how and what we eat impacts our entire world in many important ways.

By making conscious food choices and choosing to learn and care about where our food comes from, we can not only improve our own health, but the health of the entire world - from the farmers who grow our food, to the animals, plants, and soil that support and/or comprise our food, to the environment at large - including water, air, and wildlife.

As the video below explores, food impacts everything, which is why changing the way we eat and working towards a new food system can be so powerful and far-reaching.

The guest on this episode, Mark Bittman, is the author of more than 20 books on cooking and food, including the acclaimed How to Cook Everything series. His new cookbook, Dinner for Everyone, shares how simple and delicious it can be to cook at home, no matter what your dietary preferences are. It's the perfect cookbook to add some easy and tasty variety to your home cooking - which many of us could use right about now!

Watch the interview below to learn why the food we eat can be a solution to many of the issues facing our world today...

Strawberries are usually the first fruit of the season, and even if you don't grow your own, you can often find organic berries for a very reasonable price (conventionally grown strawberries have some of the highest concentrations of harmful pesticides, so you should always choose organic). We look for them to go on sale every spring or early summer, and usually buy a whole bunch and make a nice big batch of jam to last us through the winter. While I love all jam (who doesn't?), strawberry is one of my favorites...BUT - only if I make it the right way.

Freezer jam is my favorite as it is not really cooked, so you get that full, fresh, strawberry flavor. However, it does take up room in the freezer, and of course you have to wait for it to thaw before eating, so I do like to can most of our strawberry jam.

However, I discovered several years ago that I really don't care much for canned jams that contain pectin - especially strawberry. Pectin seems to change the color and flavor to make it much less appealing. Plus, you have to use more sugar than fruit to get it to gel properly, which makes no sense to me. I want to taste the strawberries - not a mouthful of sugar!

Since I started making the old-fashioned kind of jam without pectin, I have re-discovered my love for strawberry jam. Not only does it taste better, but it's a lot healthier for you as it uses less than half as much sugar! I actually haven't used pectin for years now in any kind of jam. I have found that just about any kind of fruit will gel up nicely if you cook it long enough.

Below is an excellent recipe for homemade low-sugar strawberry jam without pectin. If you're not feeling up for canning (which is easier than you may think - especially for jams), you can certainly also refrigerate this jam for up to 6 weeks, or freeze it for longer-term storage.

For some reason pancakes sound really good to me today, and when I was looking for recipes to share with you this week, I kept coming across tasty-looking pancake recipes...

This old-fashioned buckwheat pancake recipe is delicious and flavorful, and perfect for those with food allergies as it is gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and also free of refined sugars! This was likely unintentional, as this is a 1920's recipe, so it was more based on frugality than trying to avoid specific ingredients. If you didn't have your own chickens or cows, you likely couldn't afford to buy milk and eggs (or keep them fresh), and whole wheat flour didn't store particularly well, so buckwheat was often a better choice.

This recipe takes advantage of the age-old miracle of fermentation to create light, fluffy, and flavorful pancakes, but it's a great fit for the busy modern world, too. Just whip up your batter the night before, let it sit overnight, and you can have a healthy breakfast on the table in the morning in under 10 minutes!

Save a cup of the batter (you can keep in the fridge), and just add to it the next day (and so on) to make your pancakes. It's a quick and easy way to make pancakes every day of the week if you want!

For several decades, artificial sweeteners were touted as the "solution" to weight gain, which has long been linked to high consumption of processed sugars.

Throughout the 1980's and 1990's, pink and blue paper packets of chemicals replaced sugar packets on every restaurant and cafe' table, and consumers downed gallons of artificially sweetened drinks with seeming impunity. "Diet" sodas replaced the regular kind on store shelves and fast food joints. Even candy and desserts began to be made with artificially produced sugar alternatives.

But obesity rates did not decline (in fact they continued to increase unchecked), and eventually, consumers began to wake up to the potential hazards lurking in these sweetly flavored substitutes. Over the past few years, researchers have uncovered some alarming facts about artificial sweeteners - and the truth is not all that sweet... In fact, not only have some studies found that consumption of "diet" sodas may actually increase weight gain, but there are some truly troubling health consequences of long-term consumption of these chemicals.

Today's guest post explores the bitter truth about artificial sweeteners and shares some healthier alternatives.

With winter weather upon us and the holidays just around the corner, many of us are gearing up for a month of parties and rich foods, which we approach either with dread or anticipation (often followed by guilt).

However, as we have discussed many times before, there is no need to feel guilty for indulging a bit during the holidays. In fact, as long as we don't let it get out of hand, it is perfectly okay to enjoy yourself, and perfectly possible to eat healthy during the holidays at the same time!

Besides the fact that enjoying your food may actually have a positive impact on your health (at least your mental health if not physical as well), the truth is that many of the foods we have been taught to think of as "bad" for us are actually better for you than you think - at least when approached with moderation and consideration.

Fats are a great example. Despite decades of evidence to the contrary, and even a number of mainstream media articles in recent years, many doctors and health "experts" in the media still insist on continuing to name dietary fat as "the bad guy."

The fact is, healthy fats are not only not evil, but they are actually necessary for good health. The key word here being "healthy." 

The question is, of course, what constitutes a "healthy" fat?

Recent evidence shows that, contrary to the widely accepted theory that naturally occurring saturated fats are bad for you, the real culprits for many of today's modern health issues such as the obesity epidemic are actually the man-made, heavily processed, chemically altered fats that are found in most processed foods.

With that in mind, let's take a look at some of the healthiest fatty foods, as well as some that you should avoid at all costs:

Welcome back! This week, we're sharing a fascinating and inspiring video on the future of local food. After a several-decades-long departure from local food consumption (especially in in urban areas) throughout the U.S., concerns about unsustainable farming practices, climate change, food quality, and access to healthy food have spurred a resurgence in the local production of food - even in urban areas. Urban farming has taken off in a big way across the country in recent years, and it doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

While there are many challenges involved in producing food locally to feed under-served populations in urban areas, some people see this as a potential solution to the "food deserts" that have become prevalent in low-income and urban neighborhoods. Producing more food locally also helps to cut down on fuel emissions for transporting food from the growers to the consumers, and allows consumers access to fresher and more nutrient-dense foods.

While local food production may take various forms in each community depending on available resources, climate, and other factors, if managed responsibly and sustainably, it could be part of the answer to a number of the social and environmental problems facing our world today.

Watch the video below to learn more about how local food producers and urban farmers are disrupting the industrial food production system in favor of more healthy and sustainable solutions:

Despite all of the evidence to the contrary, and even a few big mainstream news releases, the majority of people today still buy into the outdated low-fat propaganda that was so prevalent in the 80's and 90's, believing that all dietary fat is "bad," and so-called "low-fat" or "lite" foods are better for you. In fact, not only are these mistaken beliefs untrue, but they may even be harming your health!

The truth is that most of these "light" or "fat-free" foods actually contain added sugars and carbs to replace the fat, which actually lead to faster aging, high blood sugar, weight gain, and overall poor health. On the other hand, healthy fats can actually help to slow the aging process, keep your blood sugar stable, and maintain a healthy hormonal balance among other benefits.

I've written a number of times about the importance of healthy dietary fats, how to choose good fats vs. bad fats, and why the low-fat myth is so harmful.

This week, we turn to one of my favorite health experts to get his take on two of the healthiest fats around - but they're not what you might think...

While you hear lots of news stories these days about healthy fats such as olive oil, nuts, avocados, and fish oil, these two fats are still all-too-often vilified in the media and misunderstood by most of our population even today.

You may be wondering what all the fuss is about over the Keto Diet. Ketones, ketosis, and ketogenic diet tips are all over the internet these days, with outrageous-sounding claims of weight loss, healing, and overall health improvements abounding. As I have mentioned before, I am still on the fence about keto, but based on all I have read thus far, it seems there may be some merit to this type of eating plan - at least in the short term. It does seem to show some promise in managing certain health conditions as well, such as Type 2 diabetes.

However, I encourage you to do your own research if you are interested in trying keto for yourself. You may want to check out this month's event - the Keto Edge Summit - which promises lots of interesting info on this unique dietary strategy.

If you want a little taste of what keto is all about, and some tips for getting started, we're giving away a free "Keto Quickstart" Guide this week. Click the link now for free access, or learn more below...

Late summer is a great time to enjoy fresh, crisp summer apples, and what better way then when paired with creamy avocado and anti-inflammatory turmeric root? Turmeric root offers loads of health benefits, and has an earthy, warm flavor that pairs well with the tart-sweet apple and spicy ginger in this salad. The avocado provides healthy fats as well as vitamin E, and will help your body absorb the turmeric, especially when paired with a pinch of black pepper.

It isn't always easy to find fresh turmeric, but late summer and early fall is the most likely season. You may be able to find it at your local farmer's market, or at some Asian grocery stores. If you can't find any, you can use dried, ground turmeric instead. The flavor is a little different, but you'll still get all the health benefits. (Be careful, as both fresh and ground turmeric are highly pigmented and will easily stain both clothing and countertops!)

This simple salad is both satisfying and refreshing, and it's packed with healthy ingredients! Enjoy it all throughout the summer and fall season for a healthy finish to the year.