First, a confession…forgive me, it has been over 2 months since I last blogged. I have had the “too busy to blog blues”. This has been due to some very good things. I was in the UK for 2 weeks over Christmas visiting family. And a few weeks after that I spent 11 glorious days in Bocas del Toro, Panama at the best yoga retreat ever at Bluff Beach Retreat, hosted by the irrespressible Christine Dennis of Prashanta Yoga (my “local”). And throughout I’ve had the pleasure of doing custom consultations with some incredible women, creating plans to optimize their health and well-being. Nothing gives me greater joy; it is why I became a holistic nutritionist. But being too busy to blog has had its downsides too. One is that Google is not very happy with me. The other is that researching, creating educational handouts and designing diet, supplement and lifestyle protocols and custom meal plans requires me to spend a lot of time at my computer. Enter “Slouch Asana”, as Christine so aptly named this poor posture. We spent a lot of time at Bluff Beach working to counteract the effects of this pose.
Author: The Nutritional Reset
Winter Herbal Latte Mixes from Wholehearted Eats
As a holistic nutritionist, I’m always on the lookout for simple, healthy and delicious recipes to incorporate into meal plans for my Toronto clients. This week, I came across a stand-out blog post entitled Winter Herbal Latte Mixes from Sophie at Wholehearted Eats. These herbal lattes are not only nourishing and nurturing, they are also festive!
These winter herbal latte mixes are great to have on hand in your pantry on chilly winter days. Just combine with your favourite milk (dairy or non-dairy), heat, sip and enjoy. A steamy herbal latte is perfect for some instant “cozy bliss”, as Sophie puts it.
They also make fantastic gifts as they are easy to mix, creative, and sure to be a hit with the giftee. They are great for stocking stuffers, hostess gifts, in gift baskets or for friends or work colleagues.
Check out Sophie’s Winter Herbal Latte Mixes post this week on her blog where she shares her recipes for Double Chocolate Chaga Cocoa, Golden Moon Milk Mix and Ayurvedic Sleepy-Time Mix.
Vitamin D for the dark days of winter!
This morning as I was getting ready to head outside, I lamented/cursed having to layer on just about everything in my closet. Yes, I am a wimp and I really do not love the cold. As I covered up every exposed bit of me (I would have donned a balaclava if I owned one), I thought that now would be a very good time to remind folks to up your vitamin D supplement if you haven’t already.
The reason I say “up it” is because vitamin D is a good supplement to take all year round, particularly if you are a vegan or vegetarian, as the only good food sources are animal products. Of these, the richest sources are fatty fish (and cod liver oil…yum!) and, to a lesser extent, beef liver, egg yolks and milk.
That said, the human body doesn’t really need to get vitamin D from the diet. In fact, it is quite difficult to get adequate amounts from food even if you aren’t a vegan/vegetarian. Our bodies, however, are quite adept at synthesizing it from cholesterol in our skin in the presence of sunlight.
Does pomegranate seed oil douse the fire of hot flashes?
Could pomegranate seed oil be an effective treatment for menopausal hot flashes? According to a 2017 study conducted in Germany, perhaps the answer is yes. I recently attended a symposium at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine entitled Advances in Women’s Health, presented by supplement company Nutritional Fundamentals for Health (NFH). One of the featured speakers was Dr. Tori Hudson, who provided an excellent update on recent research conducted into women’s health issues. Dr. Hudson is an esteemed naturopathic physician and proponent of women’s health (in practice for over 30 years in Oregon), author of the Women’s Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, researcher and Program Director for the Institute of Women’s Health and Integrative Medicine.
The pomegranate seed oil study she mentioned particularly caught my attention because I was preparing for my Meno-Party menopause workshop at Prashanta Yoga at the time. Published earlier this year, Pomegranate (Punica granatum) Seed Oil for Treating Menopausal Symptoms: An Individually Controlled Cohort Study tested the efficacy of pomegranate seed oil as a remedy for several symptoms of menopause, including hot flashes, disrupted sleep, depression, exhaustion and irritability.
Event: Meno-Party at Prashanta Yoga November 11, 3 to 4:30 p.m.
Peri-menopause and menopause can be a very challenging time in a woman’s life. And while you can’t turn back the clock, you can wind it up again!
Join me and Christine Dennis of Prashanta Yoga for this fun, informative and interactive seminar focusing on effective strategies and tools incorporating nutrition, supplements, exercise, yoga, mindfulness and other achievable shifts in lifestyle to restore your energy and enthusiasm for life! This workshop is open to all women interested in this topic!
Recipe: roast salmon & broccoli with chile-caper vinaigrette
I love “tray-bakes” for dinner, as everything is roasted in one-pan, making for much faster clean-up. One of my favourites is this Roast Salmon and Broccoli with Chile-Caper Vinaigrette from Bon Appétit.
Roast Salmon & Broccoli with Chile-Caper Vinaigrette
Salmon is an excellent source of protein (about 30 grams in a five ounce serving) and it is chock-full of beneficial essential fatty acids (EFAs), particularly omega-3. EFAs can speed up metabolism, support the effectiveness of insulin in controlling blood sugar, are anti-inflammatory and help power the production of hormones. Fish is also high in vitamin B12, essential for brain health.
Get strong in the gym and slim in the kitchen (you can’t out-exercise a bad diet)!
Raise your hand if you want to lose a few extra pounds and have more energy.
Isn’t that what we all want? And we think we can do it by hitting the gym a few days a week, don’t we? Certainly, exercise is excellent for weight loss. It boosts caloric expenditure and increases lean muscle mass which is more metabolically active and burns more calories, even at rest, than fat.
But you can’t out-exercise a bad diet.
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Insulin resistance and heart disease
Emerging evidence shows that insulin resistance is a more important predictor of cardiovascular disease than cholesterol levels in this July 2017 article from the Pharmaceutical Journal …
Emotional eating: what’s getting you (to chow) down?
Emotional eating is defined as eating triggered by something other than physiological hunger. At some point in our lives, most of us experience this.
Sometimes it is in response to stress, sometimes it is to evoke a happy memory – everyone understands the phrase “comfort food”. For some, however, emotional eating can become a daily practice and wreak havoc with both weight and health, particularly as most “comfort foods” are carbohydrate and calorie-dense but low in nutrients – aka, junk food (I’m talking about you: pasta, cookies, chips etc.).
Stomach acid: friend or foe?
I am willing to bet just about every one of you reading this has at least a passing familiarity with Tums, Rolaids or Maalox or been tickled pink by Pepto Bismol – some of you may even consider these antacids great friends. After all, global antacid sales are well over $10 billion annually so that’s a lot of people buying them. But I’m here to tell you, at the risk of Big Pharma taking a contract out on me, that the uncomfortable burning sensation you feel after a big meal is more often caused by low stomach acid than by too much and, by taking antacids regularly, you are likely making the situation worse. read more