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Stress Less Menu

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail Stress Less MenuThis is the companion menu for my previous blog post, Stress Less This Summer.  As promised, it focuses on foods that have been shown in studies to reduce anxiety and/or promote relaxation.  These include salmon, yogurt, poultry, turmeric, green tea, dark chocolate and bananas.  I will discuss the first two below.

It also is stress-free to prepare.  The breakfast salad is pretty much a quick assembly job of readily purchased ingredients.  For lunch, make the soup on the weekend and portion it into grab-and-go mason jars for a quick reheat and eat meal.  And dinner is also a salad where the components may be prepared in advance at your leisure.  So all you need to do when you get home is toss it all together.  No cooking!  This is a mercy in this heat.  To keep you well hydrated, I’ve included a green tea lemonade you can sip on all day long.  And to keep you cool, I’ve finished the day with a frozen treat.

Sign up here to receive the recipes. I hope you enjoy my Stress Less Menu and please do share these recipes with your family and friends!

Stress Less Menu

Breakfast: Smoked Salmon Avocado Yogurt Bowls (the only stress-trigger here is finding yourself without a ripe avocado, so plan in advance)

Lunch: Lentil Masala Soup (an appetizing, aromatic, all-in-one meal with loads of satiating protein and fibre)

Dinner:  Thai Chopped Chicken Salad with Peanut Sauce (to make this even simpler, you can use a prepared fresh slaw mix…I like to blend two or more of PC Kale, Broccoli or Beet Slaws….and feel free to use thawed frozen mango chunks to reduce prep time even further)

Hydrate in the heat:  Iced Green Tea Lemonade (add a pinch of Himalayan or sea salt to replenish electrolytes;  also, green tea contains L-theanine, an amino acid studied for positive effects it may have on brain health and anxiety reduction )

Cooldown Dessert: Chocolate Banana Ice Cream (this is truly a revelation – frozen bananas and cacao powder whipped up into a creamy, cool, tasty treat)

Join The Nutritional Reset community here to receive this month’s menu today (as well as each month to come)!  And read on for some nutritional tidbits about a few foods featured in the recipes…

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Stress Less This Summer

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail Stress Less This SummerI simply must begin by sharing the irony here.  For this post on how to stress less this summer, I’ve been reading The Stress Solution by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee on my Kobo.  Generally, I love my Kobo.  It is handy to carry around and the highlighting and note function is useful.  When it works, that is. 

As it turns out, my Kobo has become as buggy as a sticky, humid Toronto summer day.  While reading this book, it crashed more times than I can count (pretty much every time I opened it).  I’d dutifully reboot but then it always put me back to the beginning of the book and randomly removed highlights I had made.  In short, reading The Stress Solution on my Kobo totally amped up my stress levels, had me looking a lot like the woman pictured at left (in terms of tearing my hair out…unfortunately my hair isn’t so nice and long and I am about a quarter-century older) and ready to commit Kobocide!

On the sunny side, however, it gave me ample opportunity to try out some of Dr. Chatterjee’s sage advice for relieving stress.  This is not meant to be an exhaustive list nor a comprehensive text on stress reduction, simply a subset of suggestions that worked best for me.  Read on for my fave tips on how to stress less this summer.

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Dishing It Up for June 2019

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail Dishing It UpDishing It Up serves up a selection of stories, studies & so on from the world of wellness & nutrition each month.


In this month’s issue of Dishing It Up…

10 Ways to Lower the Cancer Risk of Grilling
Posture impacts how you perceive your food
EWG’s 13th Annual Guide to Sunscreens
103-Year-Old Julia ‘Hurricane’ Hawkins Wins Gold in 100-Meter Dash: ‘It’s Awe-Inspiring’ to Do This
Why Mars is Betting on Personalized Nutrition 

Here’s a taste of each from the sampler platter…

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Strawberry Social Menu

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail Strawberry Social Menu

Tomorrow is officially the start of summer – yahoo!   And along with the more clement weather, we are seeing more locally grown food on grocers’ shelves.  Local produce is the most nutritious and delicious, since it travels just a short distance from farm to fork and so can be enjoyed soon after harvest, when both flavour and nutrients are at their peak.  Local strawberries are a favourite of mine so, to celebrate, I created this Strawberry Social Menu.

Included are a breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert, all featuring luscious strawberries.  Treat this as a selection of recipes highlighting strawberries and other treasures of the spring and early summer harvest (such as asparagus, fresh peas and rhubarb), rather than a menu for a single day.  If you ate all these dishes in one day, you would be committing strawberry overkill, if there is such a thing!

Sign up here to receive the recipes. I hope you enjoy them!  And I invite you to share these recipes with your family and friends!

Strawberry Social Menu

BreakfastStrawberry Almond Protein Smoothie (Not a fan of vanilla protein powder?  Use plain protein powder and add a teaspoon of vanilla extract.)
Lunch: Strawberry Asparagus Salad with Tahini Dressing (It isn’t a celebration of spring without asparagus!)
Dinner:  Strawberry, Shallot & Mint Salsa atop One Pan Ricotta & Spinach Stuffed Chicken with Broccoli (This salsa is very versatile!  Try it with halibut or sprinkle in some feta and serve with grilled pork.) 
Dessert: 
Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp (Technically a vegetable, tart rhubarb is delectable when paired with the succulence of strawberries.)

Join The Nutritional Reset community here to receive this month’s menu today (as well as each month to come)!  And read on for some nutritional tidbits about a few foods featured in the recipes…

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Bone Up on Osteoporosis

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail Bone Up on OsteoporosisLet’s bone up on osteoporosis, as it is a significant concern for many women in menopause.  Make no bones about it … osteoporosis can result in premature death, especially in the case of hip fracture.  According to Osteoporosis Canada, at least 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men will break a bone as a result of osteoporosis in their lifetime.  Of those unfortunate enough to experience a hip fracture, 28% of women and 37% of men will die within the following year.

When not deadly, osteoporosis can result in reduced (or lost) mobility and disfigurement, leading to decreased independence and lower self-esteem.  Effectively preventing osteoporosis is paramount to our health and well-being.

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Dishing It Up for May 2019

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail Dishing It UpDishing It Up serves up a selection of stories, studies & so on from the world of wellness & nutrition each month.


In this month’s issue of Dishing It Up…

The Land of Immortals:  How and what Japan’s oldest population eats
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, but the research has long favored men
Fast walkers may live longer, study says
Is Dancing the Kale of Exercise?
Emma Thompson Reflects on Life, Loss and Resilience

Here’s a taste of each from the sampler platter…

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Engage Your Abs for Esprit de Core

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail Engage the Abs for Esprit de Core“Engage the bandhas!”  My yoga teacher, Christine Dennis, reminds us of this often in class – it’s almost a mantra.  Bandha is the Sanskrit term for “body lock” in Hatha Yoga.  Christine is usually referring to the bandhas that involve the pelvic floor muscles and the abdominals up to the diaphragm.  In plain English, she means “engage your abs”!

Activating these muscles essentially creates a supportive “corset” for your torso.  This protects your back and helps stabilize your body.  When you engage your abs and strengthen your core, you make daily activities easier.  More important, you help prevent injury during both day-to-day activities and exercise.  At my age, I’m all about preventing injury, especially back injury.

And (spoiler alert for an upcoming post on osteoporosis) weight-bearing exercise is one of the most effective things we can do to prevent bone loss as we get older.  In fact, studies have shown that strength training may even help build new bone.  Of course it also builds muscle mass to keep us lively and energetic.

So now is the perfect time to delve into how to engage your abs!  With esprit de core, you will be able to strength train both effectively and safely! read more

Dairy-Free Bone Building Menu

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail Dairy-Free Bone Building Menu

When it comes to bone health and nutrition, we tend to focus on meeting our calcium needs with dairy products like milk, cheese and yogurt.  But what if a person is lactose intolerant and can’t consume dairy products?  This is the case with one of my readers, who wrote asking for some recipes that were dairy-free yet high in calcium.  This Dairy-Free Bone Building Menu is for her, people with dairy allergies and anyone interested in alternative sources of calcium.

Munch on this menu and you will consume 1233 mg of calcium, just over the 1200 mg recommended dietary allowance (RDA) set by Health Canada for women over 50 and men over 70 (the RDA for younger adult women and men is 1000 mg).  You will also consume 433 mg of magnesium, another extremely important mineral for bone health (again exceeding the RDA of 320 mg and 420 mg for adult women and men, respectively).

Sign up here to receive the recipes. I hope you enjoy them!  And I invite you to share these recipes with your family and friends!

Dairy-Free Bone Building Menu

BreakfastSardine & Avocado Salad (Not a fan of sardines? Use canned, bone-in, wild salmon instead.)
Lunch: Roasted Carrot, White Bean & Tahini Soup with a side of Sauteed Collard Greens & Almonds (don’t skip the collards, they provide 282 mg of the 535 mg of calcium in this lunch)
Dinner:  Sesame Trout, Bok Choy & Quinoa (see below for more info on sesame and bok choy)
Treat: 
Gingerbread Brownies (Blackstrap molasses is surprisingly high in calcium, with 179 mg per tablespoon)

Join The Nutritional Reset community here to receive this month’s menu today (as well as each month to come)!  And read on for some nutritional tidbits about a few foods featured in the recipes…

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Dishing It Up for April 2019

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail Dishing It UpDishing It Up serves up a selection of stories, studies & so on from the world of wellness & nutrition each month.


In this month’s issue of Dishing It Up…

Why Science Can’t Seem to Tell Us How to Eat Right
Obesity might soon replace tobacco as top cause of cancer…
Are meal delivery kits healthy?
Putting Down Your Phone May Help You Live Longer
The Breathing App / Resonance Breathing

Here’s a taste of each from the sampler platter…

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Liver Lovin’ Menu

Toronto Holistic Nutritionist Laurie McPhail Liver Lovin Menu

You could say this Liver Lovin’ Menu delivers the ABCs of detoxification:
A for Alliums (garlic & onions)
B for Brassicas (kale, arugula, radish, broccolini, aka Crucifers)
C for Cardoons (artichokes) & Chenopodiaceae (beetroots)

I briefly discuss artichokes and beetroots below in this month’s featured foods.  And I don’t even attempt to pronounce the Latin name of the family to which beetroots belong.  😉

Too often detoxification is mistaken for deprivation.  With this Liver Lovin’ Menu, I show that you can eat deliciously while providing your liver with the nutrients needed to support its role as “detoxifier-in-chief”.

Sign up here to receive the recipes. I hope you enjoy them!  And I invite you to share these recipes with your family and friends!

Liver Lovin’ Menu

Breakfast: Mexican Egg Scramble (a spicy scramble of liver lovin’ eggs, onion, garlic, kale, turmeric and cilantro…con salsa)
Lunch:  Citrusy Beet Salad (a tangle of crunchy, colourful and liver-revitalizing beets, citrus, radish and arugula atop a bed of quinoa and chickpeas) 
Dinner: One Pan Mediterranean Trout (artichokes star in this dish) & Lemony Broccolini (for a deliciously detoxifying side)

Most importantly, don’t forget to stay hydrated throughout the day.  Water makes up 73% of your liver, so you need enough water for the liver to keep working its magic.

Join The Nutritional Reset community here to receive this month’s menu today (as well as each month to come)!  And read on for some nutritional tidbits about a few featured foods from the recipes…

read more