While most of us don't usually think of food as medicine, in fact, at one time, all medicine originally came from edible food sources. In recent years, a resurgence in interest in natural medicines and herbal remedies has brought healing foods back to the forefront of health and wellness.

All kinds of foods have healing properties, from roots, to leaves, fruits, and seeds. Healing foods can be as simple as your grandmother's chicken soup, or as complex as a homemade cough syrup or healing tincture made from roots, berries, and spices. (However, even the more complex remedies are often easier to make at home that you may think.)

This month, I'm excited to share with you a wonderful resource filled with healthful recipes that will help you harness the healing power of food! This 7-day meal plan is available for a limited time only, in preparation for the upcoming Home Medicine Masterclass. If you're interested in learning to make your own home medicines and herbal remedies, be sure to check it out!

We started growing ground cherries (also known as husk cherries) a few years ago, and not knowing how productive they would be, I planted 4 plants. These produced a ridiculous amount of fruit, and after eating and giving away as many of them as we could, as well as freezing quite a few, they were still producing and I was at a loss as to what to do with them.

Fortunately, my awesome husband found me the amazing recipe below, and I've made at least one big batch of ground cherry jam every summer since!

This is my go-to recipe and I've never used any others - I love it as it's super simple, tastes amazing, and is also low-sugar. I would describe this jam as tasting like "if caramel was a fruit and you made jam out of it". However, for even more rich caramel-y flavor, try using demerara or turbinado sugar. YUM!

I may have mentioned before that I am reading Food Fix: How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Communities, and Our Planet--One Bite at a Time, by Dr. Mark Hyman, this summer.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book (yes, I'm a slow reader - but it's also not a book you can speed through), and I have to say that it's the most eye-opening book I have read in a long time. In fact, I would go so far as to say it is THE most important book about food and health of our time!

I do have to put it down once in a while, as learning the truth about the food and agriculture industries just makes me so MAD I sometimes need a little break. (Seriously - if you think you know shady, you have NO idea...) But I love that every chapter - no matter how depressing, scary, or infuriating - includes "food fixes" with suggestions for taking action for positive change - both individually and as citizens en masse.

It's hard for me to describe just how impactful this book truly is, but it breaks down all of the many, many problems of our current food system in real ways - demonstrating the impact of food on our physical health, our mental health, our economy, the environment, social justice, and just about every other important issue facing our world today. And yes, the food you eat really does impact all of those things!

It also offers meaningful solutions that we all can implement in our own lives, as well as tips for pushing for government action and needed reforms.

When I finish the book, I may write a full review, but for now, I wanted to share this quick clip from CBS news, where Dr. Hyman discusses some of the issues covered in the book. Check it out below for some of the highlights, but I HIGHLY recommend reading the book for yourself!

If you haven't heard all the buzz about the myriad connections between your health and your microbiome...

...where have you been?

In recent years, the microbiome has become one of the hottest topics in both natural and mainstream medicine, with research revealing connections between gut health and mental health, immunity, overall health, and longevity.

But your microbiome is not ONLY in your gut. In fact, your unique microbiome consists of literally trillions of minute bacteria that reside everywhere both on and in your body - and it is specific to you. No other living being on the planet has the exact same microbiome as you. (Isn't that so cool??  Yes, I'm a nerd.)  :-)

The health of these bacteria is closely linked to our own health in ways that we are only just beginning to discover. This is why I'm so excited about the Microbiome Rescue Summit event happening this week - possibly the most exciting health event this year!

You can head on over and register to watch the event for free here, or read more below to find out how to grab your copy of a special Microbiome Rescue Guide that is being given away for FREE to everyone who registers...

As we draw near to the end of summer already (this one went fast!), now is a good time to celebrate the season while it lasts...

With all the serious stuff going on in the world right now, sometimes it's nice to take a little break from the news, sit in a hammock (or deck chair), relax, and have a little drink as we enjoy the gorgeous sunshine and summer weather!

That's why, this week, I'm sharing a fun and refreshing summer cocktail recipe to help you take a load off and just "chill" for a bit. And while I'll never claim an alcoholic drink is "healthy," at least this one does pack a punch of healthful ingredients like fresh citrus juice, turmeric, and ginger. :-) 

The drink itself is quite easy to make, but you may want to make up the "Wellness Tonic" ahead of time to save time if you are making multiple drinks to share.

Do you eat cereal for breakfast?

If so, you probably try to steer clear of all the sugary "frosted" varieties, or the artificially-colored "fruit" ones, or the ones with marshmallows, etc. However, even if you go for the healthiest granola or "whole-grain" types you can find, you may not be doing your health any favors. (Yes, I'm even talking about the "doctor-recommended, heart-healthy" ones.)

Many of these cereals are actually promoted as "health foods" by the big food corporations that make them (to learn why they can get away with this, even the "doctor-recommended" stamp of approval, check out the shocking and eye-opening book, Food Fix, by Dr. Mark Hyman. You'll never look at food the same way again!), but in fact, these common breakfast foods actually have a number of extremely negative impacts on your health, including diabetes, obesity, cancer, and accelerated aging.

Today's guest post, by a dietitian and nutritionist, explains why, and what to eat for breakfast instead that will actually give you energy, balance your blood sugar and hormone levels, and feed your body properly.

When did the world get so crazy?? Am I just getting old, or does it seem like things are so much more complicated and messy than back in the "good old days"?

With everything going on in the world today, it's tempting to stick your head in the sand and try to ignore the problems around us. Or, as so many of us do, to take the easy way out and blame the government, the right wing, the left wing, the immigrants, the "deplorables," the corporations, etc. for all the world's problems.

But like it or not, WE humans are all in this together, and we are ALL complicit in the issues we are facing today - from the effects of climate change (weather disasters, droughts, food shortages, pandemics), to our modern health crisis (over-consumption of industrialized foods leading to diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc.), to social unrest stemming from decades of ignoring the issues of oppression and lack of representation experienced by the working classes.

You and I, regardless of how "innocent" we may think we are of any wrongdoing, are part of the problem - and it is up to US (and by "us" I mean every living person on the planet today) to take steps to create a healthier and more sustainable future for the planet and all of humankind.

How do we get started? By arming ourselves with knowledge.

Knowledge truly is power (which is why the powerful have often sought to prevent others from gaining it - be it by burning books, preventing or discouraging literacy, or spreading "fake news"). The more you learn about how to take care of yourself, grow your own food, care for your own health, make your own "medicines," and the more you learn ways to make a positive difference in the world around you, the more power you have to make true, impactful, and lasting changes.

Even better, once you begin learning, you'll want to learn even more, and you'll begin to realize that just about EVERY choice you make - from the clothes you wear and what you wash them with, to what you have for breakfast, to the car you drive to work - can actually have an impact on the world around you. And you get to make the choice as to whether that impact is positive or negative. If that sounds overwhelming, change your perspective! Instead of overwhelming, look at it as liberating and empowering. YOU have the freedom to make choices that can make a real difference in the world!

Below are 6 ways to live more sustainably in today's world. Some of these are just simple, small daily habits that can make a big difference over time. Others are larger undertakings, but if you tackle them one step at a time, you'll soon be on your way to making a positive difference - both for yourself and your family, and for the planet at large.

Boosting immunity has become top-of-mind for many people over the past few months. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage our nation, more and more people are looking for ways to enhance their natural immunity and stay safe from the virus.

While things like eating healthy, getting plenty of sleep, and taking extra vitamins have been getting attention even in the mainstream media, one aspect that hasn't been getting as much press - but is at least as important to a healthy immune system, if not more - is gut health.

In fact, a large percentage of your immune system is actually in your gut. A healthy gut microbiome is actually in the front line of defenses against viruses and other pathogens. That's why I'm so excited that this year's Gut & Microbiome Rescue Summit is coming up in just a few weeks! If you're interested in improving your gut health and your overall health and longevity, you'll definitely want to check out this awesome online event.

However, you can get a head start on a healthy gut right now, by downloading this month's freebie: Shivan Sarna’s 26-page eGuide, Boosting Immunity Through Gut Health: Heal Your Gut, Boost Immunity, & Get Your Life Back.

Just click the link to go grab your copy now, or read more below...

Summer is in full swing here, and our fridge is once again crammed with garden goodness - cabbages, lettuce, peas, beets, green onions, zucchini, yellow squash, and cucumbers, cucumbers, cucumbers!

I ended up with about twice as many cucumber plants as we needed this year, as my first planting didn't come up well, so I planted extra the second time, and they ALL came up! I thinned them out pretty heavily, but we still ended up with 6 or 7 cucumbers plants. Since these are the extremely prolific Boston pickling variety, we really only need 4 plants maximum - and that's if we want to can a lot of pickles.

Needless to say, we are swimming in cucumbers this summer! I pick a colander full almost daily, and we've been eating variations on cucumber salad several times per week, giving them away, and of course, making pickles! I usually can a few batches when we have a lot, as we only grow cucumbers every few years due to pests, and they will last us a couple of years.

This weekend was dill pickles - whole, spears, and hamburger slices. Next weekend will be the classic bread & butter pickles (my favorite), and I may even try a new sweet and spicy variety if they continue producing heavily like this.

I also love naturally fermented pickles, and was amazed to discover that, although I have shared many natural fermentation recipes here, I've never shared a recipe for lacto-fermented cucumber pickles. While these do need to be refrigerated once they have fermented to your taste (so you can't make gallons of them), they are so tasty you may just have a new batch going every week while the cucumbers last! Below is the simple recipe I use.

I am currently reading a very interesting and thought-provoking book called Food Fix, by Dr. Mark Hyman. This book details the massive problems with our current food system, which Hyman contends (and I agree) is the central reason for our current epidemic of modern diseases such has heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, and more.

However, rather than simply being all "doom and gloom," every chapter of the book details a number of specific "food fixes" for each issue that needs to be addressed.

From positive incentives for food companies making healthier foods, to taxes on unhealthy ingredients, to subsidizing healthy foods instead of junk, to ideas for getting healthier foods into schools and hospitals, and much more, the book is filled with positive solutions and ideas to help us turn our modern health crisis around and build healthier, happier, and more productive lives for everyone.

The short video below contains parts of two interviews that Dr. Hyman held with food experts who discuss aspects of the current "Big Food" system, and share their ideas for creating a healthier food system.