Live Free Nutrition

Isaac Weiner, HHC

Daily Updates

June Newsletter

Letter from Isaac

Hello, and welcome to the first issue of my newsletter on holistic health. I have settled on a monthly schedule of publication, with the goal of keeping what I write simple, straightforward, and helpful. I plan to include recipes, articles about general principles of eating healthfully and living a healthy life, and some opinion pieces about alternative health care. Since I'd like to keep what I write relevant to my readers, I'd be happy to hear what kind of suggestions you have for future topics, as I will willingly expound on anything related to holistic health when given the slightest chance (Yes, you're basically winding me up and standing back).

If you're receiving this newsletter, it's because you're a client, someone with whom I've done a health history, or a friend (or all of these things). In case you are not very familiar with what I'm doing, I'll briefly explain. I am a certified holistic health counselor and graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. In my practice, I help people live healthier, happier lives by guiding them through positive diet and lifestyle changes. I work with my clients in individual six-month programs. I also lead group workshops and group programs, and work with schools, corporations and other communities to improve their overall health and wellness.

General Guidelines for Healthy Eating: Seasonal Eating

What makes a balanced meal? The standard theory shared by most nutritionists and dieticians is that it consists of a certain ratio of protein, carbs, and fats. The government's website mypyramid.gov will give you more specific details based on your age and sex. Diet-book authors and diet gurus argue back and forth about whether you should have more carbs, no carbs, lots of protein, less protein, low fat, or gobs of fat. In truth, the amount of each differs for different people. And equally important is what kind of fat, carbs, etc., you eat. But there is much more to the story of balancing a meal than just these categories. There are many, many ways to balance a meal, and all that means is to put together some food that will make you feel good – or "balanced" – in terms of energy, awareness, strength, attitude, and health. You can take into consideration the season, the weather, your lifestyle, job, current state of health, the colors of the food, the tastes, the method of preparation, how hungry you are, even your mood. Is this starting to sound complicated? Well, don't worry, because the choices you will make when taking these things into consideration are all very simple and intuitive and. Let's take, for example, seasonal eating.

The theory behind seasonal eating is based on our experience of balance in nature. Plants grow and animals thrive in response to the conditions around them. Melons grow in the hot summer and are proportionately cool. The warming energy of root vegetables sustains them even into the winter. Aside from the fact that they will be fresher (having not necessarily traveled as far) and tastier (having been grown under the sun, not in a greenhouse), the in-season foods that you eat will impart their energy to you and help you thrive in the same conditions in which they grew and prospered. Generally if you eat something out of season it's been flown halfway around the world – from California or South America – a process that uses up a lot of energy and resources. Now, if these were the best foods for you that would be one thing. But the fact that your body will appreciate the local, seasonal foods more than, say, the tropical foods, is another reason to cut down on consumption of food that has traveled through a change in climate to get to you, regardless of how appealingly exotic it may sound. Most people will agree that whether it's happening or not, climate change is not such a good thing.

But this is not a hard and fast rule. For example, even though they come from far away, I love avocados. If you're a vegetarian, they're an excellent source of fat in your diet. There's even a recipe for guacamole in this newsletter. But if I eat avocados more often than other fruits, I don't feel so great. This just shows that there is still a lot of space for personal decisions within these general principles.

We are currently in the month of June (that is, if I get this newsletter finished in time. Originally it was a May newsletter). So what are some options if you live, say, in New York City, like me? I checked the farmers' market website and here's what they are harvesting now: asparagus, beets (and beet greens), broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, mesclun, peas, radishes, rhubarb, scallions, spinach, summer squash, swiss chard, turnip greens, and strawberries. There's plenty of variety there; if you choose to eat more seasonally, it's a great way to discover new fruits or vegetables that you wouldn't have an excuse to cook otherwise.

For more information on this kind of topic there's Elson Haas' book Staying Healthy with the Seasons, and John Douillard's Ayurvedic diet book The 3-Season Diet.

Sneezing Like Crazy: Pollen Allergies

I'll just come out and say it: I have a loud sneeze. Something about my constitution causes me to really let loose when the wrong thing gets in my lungs. Like pollen. (Thanks to this peculiar characteristic of mine, I've been able to do a lot of accidental research on the psychological conditions under which people stop saying "bless you": usually by the third sneeze).I've always had lots of problems with pollen, problems that manifest themselves very visibly as teary eyes, a runny nose, and a general bleary, cloudy feeling of fatigue that on most days last summer left me wading through the pollen-thick humid air half-blindly like a swimmer without goggles in an overchlorinated pool. I prefer not to take conventional medications like Claritin, so for many years I've just sneezed my way through the summer with some help from homeopathic medicines. But this year those allergies have been gone. Totally gone.

What did I do differently? Around May, when I started giving sugar blues workshops, I brought along some raw local honey as an alternative sweetener. After a while it occurred to me that, hmm, I'm recommending this to other people, maybe I should try it too. I started eating it right after a workout, the best time to consume refined carbohydrates. Then I started wanting to it more (yes…sugar is like that). After a few weeks I felt like I'd had enough, however, and it was then that I noticed that my allergy symptoms were gone.

Why did this happen? Raw honey contains all the pollen, dust, and molds that cause the allergies – local honey has the specific pollen that's causing your specific allergies. Eating a teaspoon a day will cause you to build up immunity. I think it's best if you combine this with some aerobic exercise so that the sugar gets put to some use. Honey also happens to be good for ulcers, bronchitis, coughs, and asthma. But I repeat – don't get the filtered, processed kind – get the raw honey or honeycomb that is almost solid, and see if you can get some that is made in your state.

Holistic Health and Society: Supermarket Organics

There have been some interesting articles lately about the sustainability of the way we eat and the survival of the term "organic." Most of them have something to do with the work of Michael Pollan, who wrote a book called The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. The New Yorker recently published an article about Whole Foods, "Paradise Sold," by Steven Shapin, which referenced Mr. Pollan's book several times; Mr. Pollan later wrote an article in the New York Times Magazine about Wal-Mart's decision to sell organic food, called "Mass Natural."

The food industry has seen how successful Whole Foods has been in marketing healthful, organic food. At a time when conventional supermarkets' profits increase only by a few percent a year, and that probably only due to clever marketing (Does the amount that people need to eat increase every year?), the organic food industry is growing at a rate of something like 20% per year. This is where Wal-Mart comes in: they are cashing in on the organic food movement's popularity and promising to sell organic foods at low prices.

The tricky part is that "organic" and "supermarket" started out as two different philosophies. Organic foods, by definition, cannot be genetically engineered, sprayed with pesticides and herbicides, be grown with artificial fertilizer, or in the case of organic meat, fed with antibiotics or hormones. That's what is required for organic certification. (I like to call it "Pre-WWII food.") However, the organic movement, as Mr. Pollan points out in his article, also strives to represent sustainable, local, small family farming – a system for producing food that is much more appropriate for farmers' markets than "super" markets like Wal-Mart and yes, even Whole Foods. It's not that organic should remain a small niche market, eaten only by hippies and wealthy elitists (how did those two end up together?), but, rather, that it was just never meant to be corporate. The expense of the food has more to do with the fact that the dairy and meat industries (as well as the wheat, corn and soy industries, which are responsible for many of the ingredients in junk food and fast food) receive huge subsidies from the government, while organic growers of fruit and vegetables don't see a dime (a fact not mentioned in any of these articles). The truest expression of the organic-food ideal is the more conservatively minded Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA. In this arrangement, the members of the community pay the farmer up front for a share of his produce as it is harvested throughout the year. The organic farm remains a small, local operation, the food is seasonal, and the customers are given only what's available – they are less likely to buy too much and waste their food. There is also no need to ship food across the country from California, Washington State, or even across the world – from Chile, Ecuador, etc.

This is the dilemma that Mr. Pollan outlines in his article – it's great that people who shop at Wal-Mart can get food that has not been sprayed with poisonous chemicals like Atrazine. But to sell that organic food cheaply Wal-Mart must continue to use the economic methods that organic was meant to oppose in the first place. In other words, Wal-Mart isn't going organic: organic is going Wal-Mart.

In "Paradise Sold," Mr. Shapin points out similar flaws in Whole Foods' approach to, well, whole foods. Both of these supermarkets are subverting the healthiness and positive environmental impact of the organic food that they are selling because they are doing it within the supermarket model. Walk into Whole Foods and look around for the organic food. You'll see the word organic on a lot of their self-congratulatory banners and signs – along with even "local" and "sustainable." But in the produce section, you'll see a lot less organic food, less even than what they call "conventional" food. And you probably will not see any local food at all. Almost all the organic food will have been shipped out from California. For this reason, some of it won't taste very good – if food is not fresh or local, the benefits of it being organic will be diminished with regards to how nutritious and how delicious it is.

Ultimately, though, the most important difference between the supermarket and the CSA isn't necessarily organic/non-organic or even local/non-local. When Wal-Mart says they are going to go organic, part of what that means is that we're going to start seeing more organic Oreos, Cocoa Puffs, and other foods that will eventually destroy your health, organic or not. Even at Whole Foods, many of the customers are not buying "whole foods." They are buying packaged, pre-made, processed foods like cereal, chips, sugary vitamin water, frozen foods, etc., all that stuff that takes up the "middle" of the supermarket (tip from Dr. Andrew Weil, probably the best-known alternative health expert out there: always shop around the edges of the supermarket, try not to venture into the middle). How often do you see a person's cart filled with vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans, animal products, nuts and seeds? That's the real difference between the farmer's market and the supermarket – in the former the focus is on the "whole foods" that, whether they are organic or not, are the foundation of a healthy diet. In the latter you will find the majority of the space taken up by processed food. In New York City, Whole Foods doesn't even sell whole grains and beans in bulk bins. These foods – like organic crops – take more time and care to prepare, but are proportionately many times more rewarding, in terms of the nutrition and sustenance they provide. In this light, they turn out to be the cheapest – or, rather, the most economical – foods of all. The more we shift towards buy food that is not only local and organic but also minimally processed, the closer we come to a food industry that is both sustainable and provides Americans with inexpensive, healthy food.

If you're interested in getting your food from a CSA, check out www.localharvest.org, which has a database of CSAs, Farmers' Markets, health food stores and organic restaurants: you can search by zip code and then link to the farm that you find.

June Recipes

We're going fruit and vegetable-heavy here because it's June. But there is also a fish recipe.

Guacamole

1/2 small white onion 1 medium, firm ripe tomato 2 or 3 ripe avocados 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice ½ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cumin

Remove avocado pits, then use a large spoon to scoop the flesh into the bowl and coarsely mash together. Stir in chopped onion, tomato, cilantro, lime, salt, and cumin. Cover the bowl and let stand for a few minutes. Don't forget the chips! (I like organic blue corn).

Sauteed Broccoli

Ingredients:

1 bunch broccoli
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
1 tablespoon olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Wash broccoli, cut off the stem, slice into pieces and put aside.
2. Cut the flowers into bite size pieces.
3. Warm oil in a pan, add stem pieces, sauteing for a few minutes.
4. Add broccoli flowers, then saute for about 2 minutes.
5. Add 3 tablespoons of water and grated carrots. Cover and allow to steam for about 3-4 minutes and remove from heat.
6. Add toasted sesame seeds, sea salt and black pepper. Serve.

Ginger Halibut with Shredded Daikon Radish

Ingredients:

2 8-ounce halibut fillets
1 cup daikon radish, shredded
1 tablespoon tamari
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon fresh ginger juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup water

Directions:

Wash fish. Mix tamari, sesame oil, ginger juice and water. Marinate fish in mixture for 20-30 minutes. Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add marinated fish with the leftover marinade. Cook uncovered for about 5 minutes. Serve with shredded daikon radish.

Strawberries

Ingredients: fresh strawberries

Directions:

1. Rinse
2. Eat

I thought I should include at least something that's in season. As I said earlier, I like not to make things too complicated.

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It's such a pleasure to help those closest to us become happier and healthier. Please forward this newsletter to friends, family members or colleagues who might be interested and inspired by it.

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July-August Newsletter

Introduction

Welcome to what I'd like to call the "midsummer" issue of my newsletter. Major, life-changing events like an upcoming wedding and a move have delayed me a bit, but time is passing and the contents of this edition are what you could call "time-sensitive." You'll find in here a discussion about spending summer days in the sun, eating the food that thrives at that time (since I do, occasionally, like to talk about food), and the mysterious practice of "blocking" the sun for health purposes. There's also the timeless topic of eating on a budget (a response to a challenge from one reader), a dilemma people have been struggling with since the budget was invented. Thank you so much to everyone who responded to my last issue and shared experiences of their own. Getting feedback really helps me make the newsletter even more relevant and helpful. As before, please let me know if there's something you'd like me to write about, and I'll get right on it. I hope you are all enjoying your summers right now (and if not, read the article further down!)

If you're receiving this newsletter, it's because you're a client, someone with whom I've done a health history, or a friend (or all of these things). In case you are not very familiar with what I'm doing: I am a certified holistic health counselor and graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. In my practice, I help people live healthier, happier lives by guiding them through positive diet and lifestyle changes. I work with my clients in individual six-month programs. I also lead group workshops and group programs, and work with schools, corporations and other communities to improve their overall health and wellness. I also give free health history consultations. If you'd like to spend about an hour talking with me about your goals for your health and life, simply send me an email!

More on Seasonal Eating (and Living)

Here's an update on what's growing right now in the Northeast: almost everything. This can be a bit overwhelming, but if you can find a way to fit snap peas, beets & beet greens, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, collards, corn, cucumbers, onions, peppers, potatoes, radishes, scallions, spinach, summer squash, chard, turnip greens, blueberries, cherries, peaches, raspberries, and plums into your diet, you'll probably be feeling extremely good. You could live solely on the abundance of fruits and vegetables available now and actually, that might not be such a bad idea. If you work in a freezing air-conditioned office it gets confusing (you might be craving hot soups, hunks of meat and fried food from 9 to 5), but anyone spending any time outside would benefit from eating fresh, raw plant food. Even the harder root vegetables can be juiced or sliced up very thin for a salad. Of course, I recommend getting most of this food locally grown if you can – that's really the whole point.

What I'm interested in talking about this month, however, is not just food but also other aspects of seasonal living. This will require me to write a little about the Five Element Theory, which is an integral part of the ancient Chinese medical system. Essentially, the theory states that all energy or substance can be categorized according to the above-mentioned five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water), each of which has its own unique characteristics. For example, the five seasons (spring, summer, late summer, autumn, and winter) correspond to the elements above. Summer, being aligned with the Fire element, is naturally the hottest month. The system expands to include bodily organs, colors, foods, sounds, tastes, directions, phase of development, and emotions. The theory comes from centuries of observations of relationships between nature and the physical body, and is applied clinically in traditional Chinese medicine. For example, the wood element, linked to spring, is also the element of anger, the sour taste, the tendons and sinews, and the liver and the gallbladder as well as the eyes. This means that a person suffering from bloodshot eyes or with a lot of otherwise inexplicable anger might be in truth suffering from a stressed liver.

I've mentioned this because when I write about the given season we're in, I'll sometimes refer to other things that share the same element. The season we are in now – summer – is closely associated with the emotion of joy. This means that summer is really the season when doing things that make you joyful is especially recommended. It's also the time to take care of the small intestine and the heart, the organs belonging to the fire element, and the time to sweat a lot of things out (each element is also paired with a bodily fluid). It's no accident that summer is when a lot of weddings happen (a topic that's been on my mind lately). Some things you can do to be more in tune with this season: wake up early, spend time out in the sun, cook a variety of brightly colored food (but lighter food – for example, if you eat whole grains, try summer grains such as millet or corn rather than wheat, rice, or buckwheat), set up some flowers in your home, go to the beach, play with your friends, watch heartwarming comedies while eating popcorn (don't microwave it, though). You can make up your own list of things that make you joyful – then go out and do the things on it! And if you are confused about the dangers of being out in the sun – read the last article.

There's a lot more to the five element theory than what I have space to go into above – but if you're interested in hearing more, let me know. Paul Pitchford's book Healing with Whole Foods has probably the best analysis of it that I know, and Annemarie Colbin's Food and Healing also has a good treatment (aren't these book titles sounding a little redundant?).

Eating Affordably

This is a topic I've been struggling with ever since I started paying for my own food a few years ago. When I was a kid we would sacrifice new clothes to help us pay for organic food, which, in a way, made sense: healthy bodies are a much more valuable investment than almost anything you could spend your money on. The only reason this is an issue, however, is because of the curious fact that a very healthy diet is often seen as prohibitively expensive. This is not just due to the emergence of Whole Foods (sourly nicknamed Whole Paycheck by those who compare it with conventional supermarkets); even the little co-ops and health food stores of the past 25 years have always been somewhat costly. I think that there are a variety of reasons for this situation. There is a smaller market for organic, locally grown food, than there is for conventional food. A few major consolidated food companies still dominate what Americans eat – and this dominance enables them to sell food at lower prices. But perhaps more importantly, by virtue of the same manufacturing and processing shortcuts that decrease the quality of the food and differentiate the food from organic food – for example, stuffing thousands of chickens or cows in a big shed rather than giving them space to roam around, or growing mass quantities of one crop in the same place year after year, or cramming snack foods with ingredients made from heavily subsidized crops like soy, corn, and wheat – these companies can charge a lot less. Using technology to diminish the amount of labor required is not necessarily bad, in my opinion, except in those cases where the nutritional value of the food – i.e. the very thing for the sake of which we're eating it in the first place, so that we can survive – is sacrificed.

Proponents of especially expensive health-food diets like the raw food diet (which certainly isn't locally grown and advocates exotic health foods like raw cacao, goji berries, noni juice, algae, reishi mushrooms, and other foods that would probably not be sustainable if we were all to eat them) say essentially that you should just suck it up and absorb the price because it's worth it (Whole Foods reps have been known to say something similar). I don't believe this is the answer. Ironically, once upon a time, the healthy food choices were those available to the poor. Processing rice to make it white, for example, was a privilege the rich could afford, but not the poor (I'm particularly fond of the scene in Kurosawa's Seven Samurai where the besieged peasants are described as so poor they can't even eat rice – they have to eat millet. Yes, millet – that delicious whole grain I was just recommending for summer eating a few pages ago). Common workers were more likely to be strong and healthy (until they finally deteriorated from backbreaking labor, of course), while the royal family was susceptible to being weak, frail, and wasting away at an early age – despite, or because of, their access to whatever food they wanted.

Now, however, the poor are more likely to be found at McDonald's, buying cases of coca-cola, junk food, candy, and generally suffering from diabetes, obesity, and a host of other health problems. And others of us – like the many college grads who subscribe to this newsletter – aren't that bad off, but still can't go to the health food store and just buy whatever we want. Nevertheless, we don't want to cash in our health if we can help it. I am of the opinion, personally, that it will not always be like this. The rate of growth of the organic and health-food industries suggest that the time will come when Americans demand reasonably priced health food and the government subsidies will be readjusted so that you can buy an organic cantaloupe for less than a Snickers bar.

So, as I said, I've been working on this issue for a few years now – so what do I do to eat affordably? My general schema is a refrain that is going to sound familiar if you read this newsletter a lot. Some of the advice, though, may seem surprising. As for the format in which it will be presented, I'm afraid I'm going to have to go with something I always considered fairly…hackneyed. Yes, you are about to hear my "Top 5 Tips" for eating inexpensively. Oh my god. Well, let's just move on and get it over with. One caveat, though: unless you are really trying to spend as little as possible, you don't need to totally adopt these suggestions – just try to follow them when you can, and you will end up saving more. If you really would like to drastically cut your food bill down but still continue to eat healthy, delicious, filling meals, send me an email and I'll get more specific with you. I usually help people plan this kind of thing out over time in my program, but nevertheless I'll try to be as detailed as I can without turning this article into War and Peace.

1. Eat whole foods. Didn't I say something about this last time? Yes, but that was just for your health. Now it's for your savings. It turns out that the foods that are the best value are vegetables, whole grains, and beans (in bulk). Part of the reason for this is that they take more preparation, though with a little practice you can introduce these foods into your diet without introducing a lot of extra cooking time into your day. I'll give one example – oatmeal vs. boxed cereal. Organic oatmeal is about .90¢ a pound. A pound of a boxed cereal like Kashi's heart-to-heart cheerios is about $3.00. I won't even mention how oatmeal is so much better for you. Now, you do have to take about five minutes to prepare it and wash the pot afterwards. It might be worth it, though, if you knew you were also cutting your food bill by two thirds. The exception here is fruit – it can be ridiculously expensive. Having some of it in your diet every day is a good idea, especially in the summer, but you only need a little. Stick with what's in season because it will usually be the cheapest.

2. Eat three meals a day. Now let's talk about some of the most expensive food in the store (and when I say most expensive, I mean cost divided by nutritional value + quantity of healthful calories): snack food. Yes, we all love snack food…I admit it…sometimes I go to the store and just want to buy nothing but snack food because I feel like I've been deprived of it for so long. So I do, but then after two days suddenly I need to go shopping again – and I think, What happened to all that food? Oh yeah…I snacked on it. Well, of course. That's what it's for. But snack food is really what happens when you missed a meal, or you're doing something you don't want to do, or you're not doing anything and feel somewhat bored, or you're too tired to prepare something. But the idea of snack food is not that it's really supposed to satisfy you. The food you get at the rest stop is only supposed to get you to the next rest stop. If you arrange your life so that you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at specific times each day and have enough at each meal to help you last until the next one, not only will you save a ton of money but you might even lose some weight as well, if that's what you're interested in. And don't hesitate to eat all the food you want during those meals – just don't eat between them.

3. Pack a lunch. Eating out is just simply much more expensive than making your own food. That's not to say that I never do it, but for me doing so is largely a social occasion – the food I make myself usually tastes better. When you make dinner, I suggest making enough to have the leftovers for lunch the next day. You'll be amazed at how much extra money you save just by coming prepared.

4. Make one trip to the store per week. From my own personal experience, I know that every time I go shopping for food I pick up something that is not on my list, not something I really need, and is something that will probably make me feel slightly sick later. Yeah. What works for me in solving this problem is making a list ahead of time of everything I'll need plus a little, just so I don't run out. If you get into a habit of spending fifty dollars every time you go to the store, whether you need more food or not, that can be a problem. And if you do run out of food before the end of the week, well, many health gurus are huge advocates of fasting. (That's mostly a joke. Fasting can be good sometimes, but I don't recommend starving yourself to save money).

5. Eat balanced meals. Many people spend a lot on food because of daily cravings. An obvious example is the wild success of Starbucks. The truth is that if the food you eat, or the events in your life, do not satisfy you, you'll be looking for additional sustenance. When I talk about eating three meals a day, make sure that there is enough food to fill you up! Many dieters go hungry because they don't get enough healthy sources of fat in their diets; the same thing happens to junk food vegetarians. Some people buy a lot of food because they're using it to make themselves feel better about something that's not food-related (what am I saying, some people? Everyone does this. Especially the health counselor). But when I say "balanced meals," I mean it's not enough to have a certain volume of food, but also to ensure that you have variety – enough protein, carbohydrates and fat (especially fat – it's filling and good for you. I suggest olive oil, sesame oil, avocados, organic animal fat (butter, milk, cheese, eggs, meat), fish and fish oil, coconut oil, nuts and seeds, peanut butter, etc. Not margarine, and not trans fats (see: anything that says "partially hydrogenated.")). Other ways of balancing the meal: taste (salt, sour, sweet, pungent, bitter – this goes back to the 5 element system listed above) and color.

As I said above, you do not need to follow all these different tips rigorously – just see if one or two of them work for you, and let me know how it goes.

The Sunscreen Debate

Yes, so what did I say in my first article? Go out in the sun. But what does that mean?

I was asked to write a little about whether there are healthy kinds of sunscreen. So I obligingly sat down to compose something that laid out the situation, and then realized that I really had no idea what to say, though I had a vague, peripheral sensation that there was a controversy about this. Having since done some research, I now have a very solid view of what I think is going on, and of what I recommend.

Most people in this country use sunscreen. I grew up having it applied to me whether I liked or not, and never really thought about it until college, when I was taking trips to the beach and was just too lazy to apply any. Sometimes I got a little burned, but largely I did not. I would wear a shirt when I felt the sun was getting too strong, but of course I didn't wear one while swimming. My experience led me to wonder why it was necessary at all. What did people do before it first became widely promoted in the fifties?

Sunscreen contains synthetic chemicals that are capable of absorbing one frequency of the ultraviolet light emitted by the sun (UVB rays), thus blocking them from damaging your skin. Sunscreen makers claim that this radiation is responsible for the skin cancer epidemic that we suffer from in America; that is, that people who do not use sunscreen are not only in danger of getting a burn, but, well, dying. However, it is possible, and has been asserted, that the synthetic chemical compounds in sunscreen are absorbed by your skin and generate copious amounts of free radicals, thus doing more to cause cancer than the sun itself. Is this true? To my knowledge, no scientific study has been carried out to determine the harmful effect of sunscreen on humans, though some have been done on animals. However, I don't like to resort to scientific studies to make a point, since every article you read has an arsenal of them and it often amounts to simply an argument from authority. Instead, I'd like to call attention to a few things that should be pretty obvious to us all.

The skin is both an organ of elimination and absorption. This is why many medicines and herbs (such as Arnica) can be applied both orally and on the surface of the skin. You are, in a sense, eating a little of anything that you apply to your skin – usually about thirty-five percent. This includes sunscreen. The synthetic chemicals in sunscreen are toxic to the body – not only can they generate free radicals on exposure to the sun, but they are very hard for the body to eliminate, and may get stored away in places that will eventually become tumors. By eventually I mean if you're slathering it on a lot, every day – I don't mean to be as alarmist about sunscreen like sunscreen makers are alarmist about the sun. But some people do overdo it, and that could be part of the reason why even though everyone uses sunscreen, skin cancer rates have dropped…not at all.

Another point is that while getting sun is very important for your health, getting sunburned a lot will damage your skin and eventually cause photoaging (that wrinkled, leathery look). Gradually building up to a protective tan (please, not at a tanning salon!) while wearing clothing most of the time is a better idea. Using an organic sunscreen without any reactive chemicals, or coating your skin with olive oil or coconut oil before going to the beach also seems to me like a safer alternative (though it's true that these substances are not as strong). The process should be even more gradual if you are fair-skinned and have the genetically low melanin levels of a Scandinavian. But all this is aside to the real point: why do most people get so sunburned all the time? You may already know the answer. It is poor nutrition. Yes, your diet!

For most of human history, we were out in the sun a lot, so our bodies adjusted and evolved, and adapted to this circumstance on many different levels. But we also weren't eating trans fats and refined, processed foods. While it's true that the sun does do some damage to the skin after lengthy exposure, people who have large numbers of antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids in their diet will have not only beautiful skin but a system equipped to repair the sun's damage quickly and efficiently. Some sources of the fatty acids: fish and fish oil, cod liver oil, flax seed oil, soybeans, dark green leafy vegetables like kale, collards, chard, and parsley, any animal product from an animal that has been grass-fed (such as cow's milk from grass-fed cows and beef from grass-fed beef), pumpkin seeds, and walnuts. Antioxidant foods (the ones that stop free radicals) include dark green leafy vegetables (again), sprouts, berries, sea vegetables, and really any food that contains high levels of vitamins E, A, C, and B.

In a nutshell, then, my advice is: don't get burned; don't use commercial sunscreen; but eat well, gradually work up to a tan, apply an organic oil or sun block to your body, and not only will you be healthy, but all that sun will ratchet up your serotonin levels and you might find yourself quite a bit happier, too!

July-August Recipes

It's finally dawned on me, after a lag of about a week or so, that I completely forgot to adhere to my standard practice of including some recipes with my newsletter. Obviously my memory's going, and I really out to rush out and buy some fish oil. Seriously, however: I chose these recipes because they all have a summer theme: ingredients like corn, lentils, watermelon and parsley are all linked to this season in the Chinese 5 phases system. Quinoa and lentils are among quickest-cooking grains and beans, and that kind of quickness is also associated with this part of the year. The quickness of the watermelon recipe isn't so bad either…

Lentil Walnut Scones

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 40 minutes
Yields: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups lentils, cooked
1 cup millet, cooked
1 egg 1/2 onion, diced fine
1 carrot, grated
1/2 cup rice, soy, or out flour
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sage or thyme
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

Sautee onions, carrot and spices in oil until soft.
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
Put lentils, grains and flour in a food processor or blender. Mix for 10-20 seconds, just to mix and slightly chop the lentils and grains. Add a bit of water if it is too dry.
Add walnuts and egg, blending for another 10-20 seconds, again mixing well, but not pureeing.
Add onion and carrot mixture, blend for 10 seconds.
Remove mixture from the blender and put into a bowl. The consistency should be a bit thinner than cookie dough. If too dry add a bit of water, if too wet add a bit of flour.
On a lightly oiled baking sheet, spoon out medium, scone size portions. Space out so they are not touching.
Bake covered with foil for 30 minutes. Remove foil, increase temperature to 400 degrees and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve fresh from the oven. The scones will keep for 1-2 days in the fridge.

Variations:

You can use adzuki bean, chickpea, or mung beans instead of lentils.
You can also use brown rice or amaranth instead of millet.
Try sunflower seeds instead of walnut.
Any other veggie you can grate can be used!

Quinoa Pilaf

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Yields: 5-7 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups quinoa, washed very well
1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 ear of corn, shaved
1 tablespoon sesame or olive oil
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped finely
3 cups water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
umeboshi vinegar (optional)

Directions:

Bring water to a boil . Add sea salt and quinoa. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.
In a separate saucepan, heat oil and sauté onion for 2-3 minutes or until translucent.
Add carrots, corn and sea salt and sauté until tender. =Add a splash of umeboshi vinegar at the end.
Place quinoa in a bowl. Add vegetables and chopped parsley.
Mix gently and serve.

Variations:
Top with lightly roasted and chopped nuts or seeds of your choice.

Grated Daikon Salad

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients:

1- 6 inch piece daikon
1/2 bunch washed flat leaf parsley
4 tablespoons toasted black sesame seeds
3 tablespoons umboshi plum vinegar
1 tablespoon walnut oil

Directions:

Grate daikon and place in a salad bowl.
Blend remaining ingredients, serve or allow to chill in fridge for 10-20 minutes.

Watermelon

Just slice it up and eat it! If you're really weird, you can add some salt – it brings out the sweet flavor even more. Also, try to eat it fresh and at room temperature – its natural coolness is just right for the summer, whereas when refrigerated it can imbalance you and make the heat even harder to handle.

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September Newsletter

Introduction

Welcome to the first fall installment of my newsletter! I'm returning from a beautiful wedding and settling in to my new home in Virginia with my wife, Katy. In this issue most of my articles are responses to questions that have come up about past articles and also in session with my clients. There's an in-depth discussion of omega-3 fatty acids, some words on how to deal with the changing seasons, and a section on how to procure and prepare bulk foods. The recipe section this time around has a theme: it consists entirely of the menu from our wedding! (except the cake…I don't know how to make that, but I'm certainly going to ask the baker to make it again this time next year). With an enormous amount of valiant assistance on the part of our friends and family, Katy and I managed to make all the food for the post-wedding celebration, and while in truth I usually don't work from recipes, I've written some out that reflect what we did.

If you're receiving this newsletter, it's because you're a client, someone with whom I've done a health history, or a friend (or all of these things). In case you are not very familiar with what I'm doing: I am a certified holistic health counselor and graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. In my practice, I help people live healthier, happier lives by guiding them through positive diet and lifestyle changes. I work with my clients in individual six-month programs. I also lead group workshops and group programs, and work with schools, corporations and other communities to improve their overall health and wellness. I also give free health history consultations. If you'd like to spend about an hour talking with me about your goals for your health and life, simply send me an email!

Enjoy this newsletter and please email me with any comments!

Autumn Approaches

It doesn't feel like it yet – it's still warm, humid and cloudy here in Virginia – but fall is coming and before my next issue comes out, the weather will have probably turned just cold enough for some people to start getting sick. It's worth it now to talk a little about why that happens. It will also give us a chance to talk about a very important element of staying healthy: being able to change. Being able to change with the seasons, and with other natural changes that occur in life, is one of the keys to keeping yourself properly nourished. One reason why so many diets fail is because they are rigid. You may need to eat differently if you move, get a new job, enter into a relationship, exercise more, get sick, etc. Many people change their diet and lifestyle if they themselves want to change ( i.e. lose weight or build muscle), but not many do so because of changes forced on them. It's not as urgent in this world of air conditioning and oil heating, but having the power to adapt is still very important.

Autumn is getting close to the hibernation time, and although we're not ready to curl up yet, it's a period where harvesting occurs and projects should be getting near the wrapping-up stage. At the same time it's a new beginning for things that weren't feasible in the summer months. It's a good period for transition towards more "interior" activity like studying, contemplation, and spending time with your friends and family. Daily exercise is also a very good idea for keeping your body warm and your blood flowing. Sometimes the shorter days sneak up on us and catch us still living a summer lifestyle, i.e. leaving the windows open or walking around in shorts. I'd say, don't try to endure it: it's only going to get colder. Make some tea and put a sweater on. And, especially, protect your neck. This is the season when the lungs and the large intestine are the organs most susceptible to both healing and to illness. Many people get mucus-y colds and coughs around this time for two reasons: coldness is penetrating the poorly protected body and weakening its immune function, leaving it susceptible to viruses; the large intestine, in its sensitive state, allows more waste to re-enter the system and weaken the body. The latter is more likely in those who are constipated and/or have a "congesting" diet high in fat, dairy products, fried foods, and refined grains – all of which lack fiber and are very hard for the body to eliminate. Eat plenty of root vegetables (there's a recipe at the bottom), drink hot tea as opposed to anything with milk or sugar, and if you do get sick, try that magical vampire-repellant: garlic. It wasn't worn around superstitious peoples' necks for nothing. Garlic is extremely warming and lethal to bacteria. Its beneficial properties come from the essential oil contained within it, which can be extracted and then rubbed on congested chests or the bottom of your feet to help prevent or reduce colds.

To extract garlic oil: peel and chop enough cloves to fill half of a quart jar. Cover with cold-pressed olive oil to about one or two inches above the garlic and place in a sunlit window for five to seven days, shaking once daily. Then strain it well through a cheese cloth, and you have strong smelling garlic oil. The garlic that was soaking can be refrigerated and used in cooking, and the garlic oil will last months and can be used both internally and externally. (This "recipe" comes from Elson Haas' book Staying Healthy with the Seasons).

Some general recommendations: Eat warming foods, cut down on damp, fried dairy foods, play sports, read books, think about things, finish up old projects, start new projects, watch classic movies, eat raw garlic, and drink tea. Keep your feet and neck warm, and try to get more sleep. And spend some time looking at the leaves changing color! More than anything else, it may help you get in touch with the natural cycle of the year.

The Challenge of Bulk Food

In my first newsletter, I made some disparaging comments about the shopping habits of the average Whole Foods patron: specifically, their tendency to go for the not-so-healthy prepared and processed foods. As an alternative, I extolled the virtues of the bulk food section (which doesn't really exist anymore at Whole Foods, unfortunately – at least not at the stores in large metropolitan areas. Instead they have those little plastic cartons of dry foods, which, when you think about it, are antithetical to the meaning of "bulk"). Some people responded to me by saying that the bulk foods in general were a little intimidating –that the clear canisters of grains and beans even had an atmosphere of superiority about them. Is it similar to the air of superiority that you sometimes seem to get when trying to talk to organic-eating, McDonald's-avoiding, skinny-looking people? I'm not sure. Actually, I think it's the one that you get when flipping through those gourmet magazines – the ones that have pictures of designer kitchens where there are always a few glass jars against the wall, filled with pasta or rice or cannellini beans. The jars are probably slightly blurry and out of focus in the background while the model in the foreground is making dough for a flaky pastry product of some kind. Well, this is not my approach to bulk food. In fact, using whole grains and beans to make delicious meals from scratch can be one of the most rewarding, satisfying, hands-on cooking experiences you'll ever have.

I find that the biggest challenge is probably what I'd call the "start-up cost:" a $30 electric steamer (I prefer the Black & Decker HS800 Flavor Scenter Steamer). Doesn't sound too bad, does it? In truth, even a steamer isn't really necessary – but it does help cut down on your time in the kitchen. I've referred to these foods a lot in various articles – whether it's eating healthy or eating on a budget. I thought I should help people get over the hurdle of actually preparing them.

Note: when I say "bulk food" I am talking about rice and beans – not granola, textured vegetable protein, chocolate covered raisins, dried fruit, or any of that snack stuff that they toss into the bins.

Making Beans

The major issues with beans are time and digestibility. That's why people either buy canned beans, or just avoid them like the plague. I prefer not to use canned beans because they are subject to a high-heat, rapid cooking process, and I believe that the best and healthiest way to cook beans is just the opposite - for a long time over a low flame. The following steps are meant to address the two obstacles mentioned above.

1. Shopping First of all, when shopping, I'd recommend that you go organic – the conventional ones that you can find in bags from Goya or other companies are usually sprayed with pesticides and more likely to be broken or split. I usually get a few cups of a given kind of bean at a time. They won't really go bad, but if they're three years old they might not be as tasty. So don't get too much.

2. Preparing You will still get some small stones and withered or broken beans, and if you would like to spend some time really getting in touch with your food, you can sift through them before cooking them and pick out any that you see. Broken beans have less energy and nutrition and little stones really don't have much at all. This can be a very meditative experience and lead to greater enjoyment of the meal. It will also help if you're trying to avoid doing your taxes. After sifting the beans, you'll want to rinse them off and then soak them. Soaking beans beforehand contributes to their digestibility. Unless it's lentils or split peas, I usually soak my beans all day or overnight. When you're ready to cook, discard the soaking water and rinse them off again.

3. Cooking. Most of the problems people have with digesting beans are a result of improper cooking. Soaking is the first step in breaking down beans and rendering their digestive enzymes more accessible. When cooking beans, I start by tossing them in a pot of water (cast-iron pots are the best) with a strip or two of kombu, a sea vegetable. In addition to being very nutritious in its own right, kombu helps to further soften the beans and over the course of the cooking it will typically dissolve completely. Bring the beans to a boil and use a shallow, wide spoon to scoop off the foam that gathers at the surface. After a few minutes lower the flame and let the beans cook, stirring every once in a while, until their texture becomes soft. For small beans like lentils this should only take 20-30 minutes, while kidney beans and garbanzo beans are more likely to take over two hours. I usually make beans on a weekend when I have a few hours at home to be near them while they are cooking and stir them occasionally. They cook best when you mostly forget about them while you're preoccupied doing other things – but make sure the flame is on low and you stir them once in a while, otherwise the ones on the bottom will burn and the ones on the top won't cook. Finally, don't add salt until they reach that soft texture. Salt has contracting properties and will counteract the cooking process of the beans.

I also like to throw in a variety of vegetables – carrots, onions, celery, parsnips, turnips, daikon radish, cauliflower, potatoes, tomatoes, etc. The more the better. Beans tend to be a little bland all by themselves and sweet vegetables especially help liven them up. Also, don't forget to season them! There is a range of possibilities here – from white beans with olive oil, thyme, sage, basil, etc. to lentils with curry, cumin, turmeric, and cardamom, all beans benefit from being seasoned. And I almost always include garlic.

4. Planning As I said before, I usually make beans on the weekend, maybe two cups at a time, with a few cups of the aforementioned vegetables thrown in. This amount of food should last you at least half the week and will only get better with more cooking. The difference between homemade and canned beans is that you do need some advance planning, but you will be much healthier and happier as a result. Beans are extremely nutritious foods, especially for vegetarians, with all their fiber (soluble and insoluble), complex carbs, protein, B vitamins, iron, calcium, and magnesium. They help people who have diabetes because they have their own enzyme for digestion (providing they are cooked properly) and don't require much insulin to digest. They also help you plan your budget – they're extremely filling and inexpensive, and can still be considered gourmet (refer back to those glossy magazine photographs). Just remember the garlic.

Making Grains

While there isn't really a refined, processed, bleached, enriched alternative version of beans (canned was the best I could do), there are definitely two polar opposites when it comes to grain foods: specifically, the whole grains vs. everything else. Figuring out what counts as a "whole grain" can be complicated, primarily because of all the grain products that are flying around claiming to be whole grain this and whole grain that. When I'm really pressed on the subject, though, I have to admit that there is something of a gradation going from whole grains to refined grains. Oats, source of the ever-popular oatmeal, are a good example of the process. Behold the stages of oats:

1. Whole oats. A whole oat is the entire edible grain, plus an inedible outer husk or "hull" which the average consumer cannot easily discard at home. For this reason the least processed oats you can still take home and eat are called…

2. Hulled oats. These have the husk removed, leaving the remaining edible parts: the carbohydrate, the bran, and the germ. Sometimes I also call these "whole oats" because no one really cares about the hull anyway.

3. Steel-cut oats are hulled oats that have been chopped up into two or three pieces by a big blade. They cook faster but are not quite as good for you because some nutrition has been lost.

4. Rolled oats are hulled oats that have been crushed flat. These have less nutrition than steel-cut oats but cook even faster.

5. Quick oats are rolled oats that have been shredded a little, so that they cook in practically no time at all. However, they have the least amount of nutrition. You can see a pattern here.

Despite how processed the oats get, I would still consider them to be whole grains even at the quick oats stage. This is because all the original components of the grain are still present. For a long time, oats have had the reputation of being good for you because of their fiber content and their ability to lower cholesterol. You'll often see it in the news or proudly reported on the Quaker Oats cylinder. In reality, though, oats share these properties with the other grains – millet, rice, barley, buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth, spelt, kamut, rye, wheat, etc. However, rice and wheat, the other popular grains, food manufacturers process by stripping away the bran and the germ, leaving only the white, carbohydrate part. Otherwise they'd be just as noticeably healthy as oats! The bran is the part that has all that valuable fiber; the germ, which is the embryo of the future grain plant, the very thing that gives it life, contains all the wonderful nutrients such as Vitamin E, folate (folic acid), phosphorus, thiamin, zinc and magnesium. It also contains what little fat there is in the grain, which is one reason why it's been removed, leaving us with white rice and white flour: fat eventually goes rancid, and food processors wanted to profit from longer shelf life. A good general rule, however, is that anything that won't break down on the shelf will have a hard time being broken down by your own body.

But the other benefit of processing grains is their subsequent quick-cooking time. This is why I use a steamer to cook all my grains. It's very simple: just rinse the grains, put them in the steamer with the requisite amount of water, turn the machine on, and go do something fun for an hour. (Sometimes, in these articles about traditional eating, I may seem to be anti-technology. I'm really not. Maybe I do feel a little bit like I'm cheating when I'm not standing over a hot stove stirring my brown rice all day long – but that's just me. You should enjoy yourself!).

Boiling grains, however, works quite well: just put the grains in water, bring to a boil, stir, reduce to a simmer, and check occasionally until they are finished. Refer to the table below for cooking times.

One more word on grains and their products: I'm not really talking about pasta, bread, cereal, bagels, pastries, cakes, cookies, crackers, chips, etc., even if you can find these things that say "whole grain." That means that the flour they are made from still has the germ and the bran in it, which is certainly a good thing; however, even baked goods made from whole wheat are not nutritionally equal to real whole grains. They are also a good bit more expensive. Now, I don't have brown rice for breakfast every morning (I have toast just as often), but I've written what I have because including a few more servings of whole grains into your life can help you both eat inexpensively and healthfully.

The Mysterious Appeal of Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Part of what I studied in nutrition school were nutritional trends, or fads: dietary theories centered around a superfood, or supernutrient, that would make you live longer, look better, feel healthier, improve your IQ, etc. Other times the fad would be for the antidote to an evil food like saturated fat or carbohydrates. Some of our teachers who lectured about the folly of these narrow-minded trends, though, were themselves susceptible to latching on to fads. For a few months it seemed like everyone who came to our school to speak was recommending fish oil, not necessarily as the cure to everything, but something you should take in addition to anything else you were doing. (i. e., "If you're struggling with such-and-such health concern, then do so-and-so. Oh, and take fish oil.") The fish oil was being recommended as a healthy way to get people to eat the miracle omega-3 fatty acids.

Now, I have developed my own theory about supernutrient fads. It goes like this: each supernutrient becomes widely known in proportion to the degree to which the foods that contain it are eaten less and less. Support for this theory dates back at least to the discovery of vitamins. Throughout history, sailors who went on long voyages would develop scurvy after their supplies of fruit and vegetables perished, and it was a Scottish surgeon, James Lind, who found that specifically citrus fruit, such as lemons and limes, could cure the disease (the British Royal Navy was quick to adopt his findings, resulting in their sailors being nicknamed as "Limeys."). This discovery eventually led to the isolation of vitamin C and sparked research into other possible vitamins.

Sometimes when you read health and wellness magazines that advise you to take advantage of the latest antioxidant, you may think that scientists have discovered some new fountain of youth within a particular food – but it's not so much that the supernutrient cures a particular disease as that we started becoming vulnerable to sickness when we stopped eating the foods that contained the nutrient. Some people then take the nutrient all by itself – as a supplement – without going back to the original, missing food. I always feel a little silly recommending foods based on their nutrients, because there are probably many as-yet undiscovered reasons to eat whole foods (or drink fish oil), and the nutrients we know are just the tip of the iceberg. The reason why I'm writing on omega-3's is both to give my own perspective on the supernutrient idea while explaining what these fatty acids are (I didn't want to tell my clients, "Uh, just take them"). So, on to the fats.

According to my theory, there's such an emphasis on omega-3's these days because at some point in the past they disappeared from our diet. I think this disappearance can be traced back to the once-popular notion that saturated fat (as contained in lard, butter, meat, milk, cheese and other foods for which there are usually "lean" "low-fat" or "non-dairy' alternatives) is detrimental to one's health, specifically in that it clogs your arteries and leads to heart disease (an ailment which still kills twice as many people as all cancers combined). When studies were released demonizing saturated fats in the mid-20 th century, many people turned to the alternatives that manufacturers had provided: polyunsaturated vegetable oils, such as Crisco and margarine (a hydrogenated polyunsaturated vegetable oil).

It's curious that there ever were such reports about saturated fats, because people had been eating them for thousands of years, and benefiting from the practice in many ways. These fats constitute half of our cell membranes, make it possible for calcium to be incorporated into our bones, supply warmth and heat to the body, insulate vital organs, and help assimilate the fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E, and K. So why did butter get demonized? To answer this question, we'll have to talk about the science behind the omega-3's.

The polyunsaturated fats, found in plant life, come in two categories, omega-3 fats and omega-6 (the number refers to the location of the first double-bond in the acid molecule). They are both called "essential" fatty acids because they can't be synthesized by the human body. Both are needed for human health, but in a very specific ratio: they should be consumed at about a rate of 1:1. For a variety of reasons, over the last century the omega-3 acids practically dropped out of our diet and the consumption of omega-6 increased such that for many people the ratio is around 20:1 or even 50:1.

One of the reasons for this development is that as farms consolidated and grew in size to become factory farms, their livestock were less and less likely to feed on grass and insects and more likely to feed on grains. Milk, meat (especially organ meat such as liver), cheese, butter, and eggs that come from grass-fed animals contain far more omega-3 fatty acids than their grain-fed counterparts. This is because the seeds and grasses and bugs are the original sources of the omega-3 fatty acid, called alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), from which the body can make the other important kinds, eicosapentaenoic acid and docohexaenoic acid (EPA and DHA). Flax seed, chia seed, hemp seed, walnuts, dark green vegetables such as kale, collards, chard, and parsely, and soybean products such as tofu and tempeh all are sources of ALA. One major reason why our omega-3:omega-6 ratio got all out of whack is clear: not only did we stop eating as many green plants and wild grasses and herbs, but even stopped feeding them to the animals we ate. As we'll see in a moment, omega-3 acids are very important for counterbalancing the saturated fat in animal foods. Saturated fat is fairly healthful in combination with omega-3's (and plenty of vegetables), but it isn't so great all by itself. A saturated fat scare was probably inevitable, and in response we started eating more commercial vegetable oils, which have the omega-6 linoleic acid, as opposed to the omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid. As you can see, this just made things even worse.

Omega-3 fatty acids have sometimes been compared to antifreeze; they reduce blood viscosity and clotting, lower blood pressure, and generally clean the circulatory system of fat and cholesterol. This makes them very helpful when protecting against strokes and heart attacks, the number one cause of death in America. When we eat grass-fed animal products, the omega-3 fatty acids they contain help regulate the saturated fat content by cleaning the arteries, making these animal products much more balanced, healthier foods than their grain-fed counterparts.

Omega-3 fatty acids, DHA in particular, are also said to be beneficial for the brain, including improving eyesight and attention span, raising serotonin levels, reducing depression and bipolar disorder, and even increasing cognitive skills. This probably has something to do with the fact that omega-3 fatty acids comprise about 8 percent of the human brain, and contribute to both brain structure and brain function. It could be that one reason why we've seen so much depression, ADD, and other mental "disorders" in recent times is the ballooning omega-6/omega-3 ratio.

In addition to the above-mentioned sources of ALA (flax seed, greens, soy products, grass-fed eggs, milk, and cheese, grass-fed beef and lamb), there are also foods from which you can obtain EPA and DHA directly. And when I say "foods", I mean fish. Cold-water fish have high quantities of EPA and DHA because they eat the oceanic version of what land animals eat: algae, plankton, seaweed, or smaller fish that feed on these sea-grasses and sea-insects. Just like in meat, the oil is found most plentifully in the organs; that's why we used to take cod liver oil! Unfortunately, many species of fish that are high in omega-3s, such as salmon, tuna, herring, anchovies, and sardines, cod, now suffer from some contamination by heavy metals (like mercury), thanks to our water being so polluted. The smaller fish, such as sardines, are lower on the food chain and less likely to have such contaminants. Some people recommend buying purified fish oil in capsules at the health food store. It may be worth trying out for those of you who may be extremely deficient in omega-3s, and suffer from the corresponding symptoms.

All the same, I don't advocate everyone taking omega-3 supplements the way many of us take other vitamin supplements. I think that eating some of the whole foods I mentioned above, such as greens or grass-fed animal products, and some sardines or wild salmon or cod liver oil, at least a few times a week, while at the same time cutting down on polyunsaturated vegetable oils (hydrogenated or otherwise) is sufficient. As always, the emphasis should be on the whole foods, because there are a lot more valuable things in them besides omega-3's that we still don't even know about.

September Recipes

The following is the "menu" for our wedding reception. Thanks to everyone who helped prepare the food! (Note: Just multiply the quantities by about six and you can feed 40 people). Now, I usually don't make these foods as precisely as outlined in the recipe. I'm more like, "throw in a few of these, add some of those, sprinkle it with that, stir it, wait until it's done, taste it, etc." But when learning them I worked from recipes. Several are from the Joy of Cooking, an excellent cookbook.

Vegetarian Chili

Soak ½ cup each of dried kidney beans, navy beans, and black beans and cook them according to the directions in the "Bulk Foods" article. While the beans cook, grab a large pot (4 or 6 quart), and pour in several tablespoons of olive oil. Heat the oil and then add:

3 carrots, chopped and peeled
2 cups chopped peppers
1 cup chopped onions
3 cloves minced garlic

Cook, stirring, until the onions are golden. Then add:

1 to 2 fresh green chili pepers, seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin.

Cook, stirring, for two minutes, then add:

3 large or 4 medium tomatoes, chopped 1 cup corn Cooked kidney, navy, and black beans (drained) Salt to taste

Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and then simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the flavors are blended, adding water if needed, for about 45 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Plain Salad

Lettuce
Cherry tomatoes
Peppers
Cucumbers
Olive oil and vinegar

Pick your own proportions!

Pesto

A few handfuls of fresh basil
2 or 3 cloves of garlic (to taste)
A handful of pine nuts
A few tablespoons of parmesan cheese (if you have it)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Put basil and garlic and pine nuts in a food processor with about ½ cup olive oil, until blended. While continuing to process, add olive oil until a smooth and creamy texture is achieved. Add cheese, and then add salt and pepper until it tastes slightly salty (to go with unsalted pasta). Mix together with a pound or two of cooked penne pasta, depending on desired strength.

Boiled Greens

We used a mixture of kale, collard greens and Swiss chard. Simply chop up the greens perpendicular to the stalks and then parallel to them, while boiling enough water to cover the greens. When the water boils, toss the greens it, with a generous amount of salt. Stir so that all the greens are submerged. When the water boils again, drain the greens. They are ready to eat.

Roasted Root Vegetables

Ingredients:

4 or 5 cups of equal amounts of Beets
(red and orange), Carrots, Potatoes, and Onions
4-5 cloves of Garlic
4 tablespoons of Olive Oil
Thyme
Salt
Pepper

Chop vegetables up into cubes of approximately equal size (about ½ inch cubed). Mince garlic. Toss vegetables and garlic together with olive oil, adding thyme, salt, and pepper to taste. Place in roasting pan or casserole dish and cover with foil or lid and bake at 450 for as long as you possibly can, tossing the vegetables every half an hour (2 to three hours is a good amount of time; you can't overdo it. The longer they cook, the sweeter the vegetables will be).

Roasted Chicken with Lemon, Garlic, and Rosemary

Thanks to Elaine Courtright, mother of the bride, for this recipe.

Ingredients;

2 garlic bulbs, minced
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon salt
2/3 cup fresh rosemary sprigs, coarsely chopped
2 cups olive oil
3 (2 ½ to 3-pound) whole chickens, cut up
3 lemons, sliced

Whisk together 1st 5 ingredients until blended; whisk in oil. Pour mixture evenly into three large heavy-duty, zip-top plastic bags; add chicken pieces and lemon slices. Seal and chill 8 hours, turning bags occasionally.

Line two 15x10 inch jellyroll pans with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Remove chicken from marinade, reserving marinade. Arrange chicken in pans. Drizzle with marinade.

Bake, uncovered, at 425 for 1 hour or until done, basting with pan juices every 20 minutes. Yield: 12 servings.

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October-November Newsletter

Introduction

This is my October newsletter – a little late, you might think, but I was waiting for October to really start, and it's finally gotten here (in November). Southern weather takes a little getting used to, I guess. In the meantime, though, I've put together some articles that have a practical bent: in "Food to Have in the House," I talk about just that, but also take the opportunity to hold forth on the art of balancing meals, food shelf life, and my eating habits. "Food and Relationships" is a sort of sequel (notice that "Food" features prominently in the titles of both. Bet you didn't see that coming). The article "Cold Weather Living" is…what it sounds like. Geez, could I get any more literal? Next time I'll title my articles "The Sound and the Fury" or "The Grapes of Wrath." True, they don't make any sense, but they sound good. Plus, there's food in the second one.

If you're receiving this newsletter, it's because you're a client, someone with whom I've done a health history, or a friend (or all of these things). In case you are not very familiar with what I'm doing: I am a certified holistic health counselor and graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. In my practice, I help people live healthier, happier lives by guiding them through positive diet and lifestyle changes. I work with my clients in individual six-month programs. I also lead group workshops and group programs, and work with schools, corporations and other communities to improve their overall health and wellness. I also give free health history consultations. If you'd like to spend about an hour talking with me about your goals for your health and life, simply send me an email!

Well then, enjoy the articles (and recipes) and feel free to write back!

Food to Have in the House

Sometimes I write articles in response requests submitted by readers, but other times I will write an article more for my own edification. This particular exercise in self-indulgence is a result of me trying to figure out what to buy when we go food shopping, such that we can embark upon that dangerous enterprise as infrequently as possible. One of my macrobiotic cookbooks has a shopping checklist, which I think conceptually is a great idea, but their specific checklist is useful only if you're macrobiotic, and I am not that strict at the moment. Everyone's checklist will be different, but each should be balanced in its own way. The idea behind this article is that you won't get stuck in the house with nothing to eat and no plan for what to do, and get stuck snacking or running out to the restaurant, which can get expensive and not be very healthy.

For anyone engaging in this exercise, I first recommend figuring out what you'd ideally like to eat. There are some things you can buy which will last a long time (such as most condiments and oils), and other that won't last more than a week (fruit). My particular checklist is slanted towards whole foods, because they are healthier, less expensive, and occasionally take work. Most of what you'll find here needs some preparation before being eaten, but this is deliberate. The work involved is not just about making the food: you're also preparing yourself to receive the food, and with that kind of awareness involved, it's much easier to eat the amount that is right for you, and to efficiently digest what you eat. I'd even say that the fact that meals made from whole foods without preservatives and processing are healthier is almost an afterthought. Nevertheless, I'd also like to spend a few words talking about food that comes in boxes and cans. Cereal, crackers, chips, candy, perhaps soda, pretzels, canned vegetables, canned beans, stuff patented by the food manufacturer, etc. – you find these guys in a lot of pantries, so much so that you're wondering if they're meant to double as bomb shelters. While it's true that manufacturers can package and process food such that it lasts for 17 years, that's not really necessary for the average person. Nor, in fact, do you want to eat food that never breaks down or gets moldy. That's a sign that it's missing many essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. If the mold stays away from it, so should you (think canary in the mineshaft). What follows is the most basic checklist I could think of for things I'd always like to have around.

Refrigerator Foods

Meat – At this time of year, we like to have more protein than usual. If you're not a vegetarian, buying a little more meat than you need and keeping it in the freezer until you're ready for it is a good idea; just remember to thaw it the day before you'd like to have it. Muscle meat is what's most commonly eaten, but organ meats are among the healthiest foods you can eat if they come from a healthy animal. For making chicken soup, I will buy a whole chicken and roast it, and then use the bones in the soup (see recipes).

Seafood – Omega-3 fatty acids! Unless it's sardines (a canned food that I think is occasionally all right), eat it as soon as possible. The one food I would insist that you eat the same day.

Eggs – A good quick source of protein. Also important for baking. We usually have a carton or two on hand.

Dairy Products – These will go bad, so don't buy too much at once. We usually have a little cheese and milk around – again, it depends on your personal usage. Also good sources of protein and fat, but better if grass-fed.

Soy Products – Tofu, tempeh, miso paste, and soymilk are all excellent foods, whether you're a vegetarian or not. I suggest staying away from other foods made with soy. They fall into the "highly processed meat substitute" category, rather than the "respectable thousand-year old fermenting method" category.

Potentially-Refrigerator Foods

If you can eat your vegetables the day you buy them, you don't really need to refrigerate them. However, most of us can't go shopping every day (though it's the best, and most traditional, way to make sure your food is always fresh. The same goes for most animal products).

Greens – I try to have greens every day, as they are the healthiest non-medicinal food you could eat. Kale, collard greens, cabbage, Swiss chard, bok choy, spinach, watercress, dandelion greens, beet greens, celery, broccoli, etc. They last a little over a week and then start to turn yellow – try to eat them before that. You want greens, not yellows.

Root vegetables – Especially good for this time of year; warming and grounding. We usually eat carrots, radishes, beets, turnips, parsnips, ginger, onions, and burdock. They will last for a long time, the round root vegetables lasting longer than the skinny ones. Beets are a vegetable you probably could keep in the bomb shelter, but carrots will get kind of bendable and even moldy after several weeks – so don't buy too many at once, whatever the discount is. Weak, floppy vegetables are still nutritious, but their energy is, well…weak and floppy.

Other vegetables – Winter squash will do wonders for you in the winter, and there are many different varieties. Sometimes it can be baked, other times boiled – cooked long enough, it's always sweet, and can easily be turned into a dessert. Kept in a cool, dry place, they will last even longer than beets. See recipes.

Pantry Foods

Grains – I like to have a few different varieties of grains available in jars, such as oats, brown rice, millet, quinoa, buckwheat, and barley. They will keep for almost a year, but don't push it. Even grains are better on the day you buy them. Pasta and other noodles also keep for a long time.

Beans – The same goes for beans as well. Lentils, split peas, black beans, kidney beans, navy beans, chick peas, adzuki beans, etc. all keep for a very long time. Don't forget to soak them ahead of time if you want to have them the next day.

Sea Vegetables – Kombu, hijiki, arame, wakame and dulse can be kept in the pantry. These are among the most nutrient-rich vegetables you can eat. They will keep your skin beautiful and your hair shiny. Having been dried, they'll last a long time. The trick is not how to make them last; it's to use them up!

Fats – I usually have plenty of olive oil and sesame oil on hand. We also have grass-fed butter and a butter substitute called Earth Balance. If you're a vegetarian, flax seed oil might be good to have around; otherwise, either eat fish occasionally or face up to the cod liver oil (which is now being used medicinally by doctors in Europe, according to the NY Times. Can't you just imagine the headlines? "Medical researchers discover powerful new traditional remedies!"). Those oils (and butter) have to be refrigerated, though, unlike the vegetable oils, which should merely be left undisturbed in a cool, dark place (They're, uh…they're very sensitive).

Fruit – Fruit should be eaten soon, and if you're running out of time, bake it into something such as banana bread or apple crisp. Apples and pears are hardier and last longer, and oranges last pretty long as well; what looks good at the market should determine your decision here. Sometimes fruit can be chosen deliberately under-ripe (see avocados) or deliberately ripe to be eaten the same day. We usually have some bananas around for a post-workout food. Dried fruit lasts a long time, and is a good alternative to something unapologetically sugary.

Nuts and Seeds – can be kept in the pantry in glass jars and could be considered either a fat or protein, or just a snack – the same goes for peanut butter.

Herbs - I usually have around a few garlic bulbs and a few pieces of ginger root. They will add flavor, warmth, and enormous health benefits to your food. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme are more than just a good song. Fresh basil is excellent as well.

Beverages – We keep a lot of tea around, as well as orange juice, milk, and soymilk, not to mention beer and wine occasionally, but mostly we drink filtered water, which is probably the healthiest of all foods, except clean air (does that count?)

Baking Products – Flour is obviously important, unless you're a gold standard health nut, in which case you just keep on hand whole wheat berries and grind your own (I'm getting there). Baking soda, baking powder, yeast, and some kind of sweetener all come in handy. We use maple syrup and honey most often, but occasionally sugar on special occasions.

The emphasis here is on having a lot to choose from when it's time for you to cook. Many of what's listed above are "staples" that last a month or two, while other foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and animal products (unless frozen), should be eaten within a week. Usually when we go to the store we replace those things and perhaps have to buy a staple or two – and usually something that's not on the list, just to make life more interesting – for example, I'm interested in eating more pickled and fermented food on a regular basis, like, well, pickles, olives, yogurt, and whatever else I can find.

Looking back now, this article seems awfully long – but I do try to be comprehensive. Even if you don't have a hugely stocked kitchen, try having a thing or two from each of the following categories: a protein; a fat; a vegetable; a fermented food. If even that is too complicated, there is always the all-brown-rice diet (but only if you're feeling both highly overwhelmed and extremely adventurous at the same time).

Food and Relationships

It occurs to me that with all the articles about food, recipes, and seasonal updates flying back and forth in these newsletters, I might have failed to emphasize the fact that I do not think of food as the most important factor in your health, and maybe not even one of the top three. The previous article is written to help you plan your meals better and hopefully eat better as a result. For example, I think that eating by snacking can be pretty unhealthy – and by snacking I mean eating processed foods out of a box or package without your own act of preparation or cooking involved, at random intervals throughout the day, in lieu of eating three whole, balanced, cooked meals. The knowledge in the above article can provide an alternative to that – but only if you're already seeking an alternative. Sometimes we're happier when snacking. I'd like to take myself as an example. Last year, while studying to become a holistic health counselor, I snacked. You could go so far as to call me a professional snacker. It doesn't take a classical education to know that a professional snacker and a certified holistic health counselor are not supposed to unite in one individual. At the time, I thought about it this way: "if I don't indulge myself in salted cashews and chocolate chips and corn chips and other dubiously healthy foods that are available at the health food store (in the aisle labeled "Guilt Free Section"), how will I understand why it's a problem?" Of course, I did understand it was a problem, because I was suffering physically, but I convinced myself that I still didn't feel badly enough and should keep trying. It wasn't hard, though, because despite the way I felt, I needed the snack foods. Somehow they were more important than physically feeling "healthy."

Looking back on it now, I realized that I was eating this way out of loneliness. Lacking the…whatever-it-is that you get from being around friends and loved ones who support you, I was much more likely to crave chocolate, cookies, or anything else that gave instant satisfaction and stress relief. I remember once stopping at the store on the way home and, in addition to buying all my other healthy food, grapping a plastic carton of chocolate covered peanuts. I guess that wouldn't have been so bad, if I had stretched them out over a week like a normal person, but instead I pulled them out of a shopping bag (somehow) while crushed into a corner on a crowded subway and ate almost half before getting to my stop. All the while I was thinking, "These people must think I'm a real glutton. Ha! If only they knew the truth: that I actually help people get healthy and get off sugar. Man, I wish I could stop eating these."

I only can attribute this problem to missing relationships because these habits all changed drastically when I saw all my friends again and moved in with my wife. Of course, any old relationships won't satisfy your cravings: they've got to be good ones. Getting rid of the friends who don't really care about you and instead spending time with people who do and who you like can add many more years to your life than giving up sugar or eating only whole foods – but guess what? The latter doesn't seem so hard when the former is taken care of.

Now, I'm not saying you can eat whatever you want as long as you're in love. Just recently I started feeling depressed from having had too much sugar, even though I've been happy otherwise. But if you're struggling to ignore cravings for snacks or junk food, take a minute to see if you're not really craving something more like good companionship.

Cold Weather Living

I actually like the cold, harsh weather and long, dark evenings. They build character. Of course, they also excuse you to bundle up in front of a fire, watch movies, and sleep late. I, however, have to take extra precautions when the temperature drops. In both the Chinese and Indian traditional medicinal systems, every person is said to be born aligned to a particular season, and which season it is can be deduced from the person's characteristics. People who easily get cold, especially in their fingers and toes, are usually winter types. This means we have an affinity for this time of year, but are also vulnerable to it. Whether you're the winter type or not, however, here are some recommendations for staying healthy and vibrant throughout the cold:

Dress warmly: Sometimes it can be a pain to break the habit of dressing lightly. However, it's more of the pain when the cold weakens your body and knocks you horizontal for a week. Think of it as a chance to try on clothes you've even forgotten you owned over the last six months. Also, think about where you usually get sick or cold (Chest cold? Ear infection? Sore throat? Fingers fall off?), and focus on covering that area in particular.

Exercise regularly: Wood-chopping is probably the best. Failing that, I recommend anything that makes you sweat, gets the blood flowing, and warms you up internally. It's great for the heat bills, not to mention your health.

Eat cooked vegetables: Forget that raw food stuff. Cooked foods have had heat imparted to them – they're warm. When we talk about being warm or cold, what really matters is what's on the inside. Ever stepped out of a hot shower and been freezing cold? During the shower your body was trying to compensate by cooling down internally. Exercising also warms up your insides. Try the root vegetables especially – they will impart their winter-surviving energy to you.

Cut down on congestive dairy products and sugar: In a dry, hot climate you may crave these foods, but during a cold, wet winter you're much more likely to suffer from chronic colds and sinus-related problems on a constant basis. This is the first half of the cure for the common cold. It is also the second half.

More protein and fat: Extra fat keeps most animals warm in the winter, and protein is necessary for building strength. Whether it's grains and beans with olive oil or whether it's animal products, have a little more fat than you did in the summer and late summer.

Eat naturally preserved foods: For thousands of years we've been finding ways to make our food last beyond the harvest season. Eating food that's been pickled, smoked, fermented, or otherwise preserved will help you continue to get the nutrients and minerals you need through the winter.

Sleep more: If you feel like hibernating, that's not an accident. Even if you can't go to bed as early as you'd like, turn out the lights you're not using and try to cut down on background noise. Don't eat late, either; try to keep an atmosphere of near-bedtime around you. This is a time of being internal, more of input/study than output/action.

Finally, ginger tea and raw garlic will cure everything if you don't follow these recommendations. The chicken soup listed below might help too.

Recipes

Chicken Soup

Many have remarked on the timeless healing qualities of chicken soup, so much so that self-help books have co-opted it as a metaphor. This chicken soup is both fortifying (building) and cleansing (breaking down), a rarity in any recipe.

Ingredients: Whole 3-4 pound chicken 1/3 cup barley 1/3 cup navy beans 1 strip of kombu 4 carrots 3 medium parsnips 4 stalks of celery 2 medium potatoes 2 medium onions A few cloves of garlic A few tablespoons of olive oil Thyme Salt Pepper A few leaves of spinach

Directions: Soak beans overnight; discard soaking water. Place in soup pot with enough water to cover, add kombu, and bring to a boil. While waiting, chop vegetables into bite-sized pieces, and mince the garlic. Wash barley and add to the beans once they have cooked for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add whole chicken, washed, with enough water to cover; also add vegetables. Simmer until chicken is cooked (about 1 hour). Remove chicken and allow it to cool; with your fingers (make sure it's cool!), remove meat from bones and pull into bite-sized pieces. Return chicken meat, skin (if desired), and larger bones to the pot and continue to simmer until beans and barley are soft. Add salt, pepper, thyme, sage, rosemary, and olive oil.

Wash spinach, slice up a few leaves, and add them to your soup bowl. They should cook sufficiently in the warm soup. Great on rainy and wintry days especially!

Adzuki Beans and Squash

This recipe is from Aveline Kushi's Complete Guide to Macrobiotic Cooking.
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It makes a nice sweet dish for autumn. Note: this recipe can be doubled or tripled if you'd like to make more.

Ingredients:

1 cup dry adzuki beans
1 strip kombu
1 cup butternut squash or other winter
squash, cubed but not peeled.
¼ teaspoon sea salt.

Directions: Wash the beans, cover them with water, and soak for 6 to 8 hours. Put the kombu in the bottom of the pot and cover with the squash. Next add the adzuki beans. Add water just to cover the squash layer. Do not cover the beans at the beginning. Place the bean mixture over low heat and bring to a boil slowly. Cover after about 10 to 15 minutes. Cook until the beans are 70 to 80 percent done, about 1 hour or more. The water will evaporate as the beans expand, so add cold water occasionally to cover to keep the water level constant and make the beans soft. When the beans are 70 to 80 percent done, add sea salt and cook until done and most of the liquid has evaporated, another 15 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve.

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:

3 pounds sweet potatoes, scrubbed.
1/3 to ½ cup butter
1/3 to ½ cup tablespoons maple syrup
Salt and ground black pepper
1/3 cup apple cider or water

Directions:

Boil sweet potatoes until nearly tender when pierced with a knife, 20 to 25 minutes. Drain the potatoes and let stand until cool enough to handle. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Peel, then cut the potatoes lengthwise into quarters. Layer in the baking dish, seasoning each layer with the following:

Salt and ground black pepper or paprika to taste
1 teaspoon butter, but into small pieces
2 to 3 tablespoons packed light or dark brown sugar or pure maple syrup

Dot the top layer with 2 tablespoons butter. Pour 1/3 cup apple cider or waterover the dish. Cover and bake until well glazed and very soft, about 45 minutes. (most important step!)

Forward to a Friend

It's such a pleasure to help those closest to us become happier and healthier. Please forward this newsletter to friends, family members or colleagues who might be interested and inspired by it. If you received this newsletter from someone else, but would like to be sure to receive it again, email me with your address and I will include you on my mailing list in the future.

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December Newsletter

Introduction

Hello everyone! The big news for this month is that I have a new website! My wife was kind enough and creative enough to learn HTML and design it for me. On the website you can learn about my programs, access all my past newsletters, read about me and how to contact me, and find links to other sites on holistic health and nutrition. The website can be found at www.livefreenutrition.com. Tell me what you think!

The weather's getting colder and we're in the midst of the holidays. This is a time when many people exhaust themselves and get sick. Some of the articles in this issue of the newsletter are designed specifically to address this phenomenon. There's an article on Christmas stress and commercialism, and another article that is a thorough overview of my views on weight loss and how to achieve it - an especially relevant topic during this time of feasting. Finally, I've written a summary of what counts as healthy cookware and how to take care of it. I hope that this issue helps you to really enjoy the next month and enter the New Year feeling healthy and happy!

I publish this newsletter as a part of my private practice as a Holistic Health Counselor, in which I help people get healthier and happier by guiding them through positive diet and lifestyle changes. I work with my clients either over the phone or in person in individual six-month programs. I also lead group workshops and group programs, and work with schools, corporations and other communities to improve their overall health and wellness. I also give free health history consultations. If you'd like to spend about an hour talking with me about your goals for your health and life, simply send me an email!

A Note on Christmas

Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is here, and that means lots of stress. Theoretically, the holidays are a time to connect with your spiritual side, take a break from work, see your family and friends, and give a few sincere gifts. But what happens is that the gift-giving part is pushed into prominence by retailers, and Christmas especially becomes all about shopping and spending. When all the focus is on the gifts, you get stuck with a lot of stuff you might not want, while frantically trying to find stuff others might like, which you probably can't afford, and the obligation becomes more powerful than the sentiment of generosity. Then there's the emphasis on display: you see Christmas wreaths and lights all over the place, which seem more bent on urging you to shop for your own than simply looking nice. Through a strange turn of events, it often seems like the real Scrooge is the one encouraging you to meet all these Christmas obligations. The stress can drive us to eat a ton of sugar and possibly come down with something called Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Some of my suggestions for taking a real holiday:

Celebrate some of the stress-free aspects of Christmas: sing traditional carols and play Christmas music, use your time off to go for walks in the snow or woods, and maybe build a fire in the fireplace.

Spend time with your friends and family. Don't worry about the gifts part, your presence is much more valuable than anything you could buy for them. Do something fun together that you will remember for a long time.

I actually think that giving gifts is one of the best parts of Christmas. But I just don't like crowding into the mall with everyone else. Try using your own personal talents, skills, and knowledge when giving a gift: everyone has something they are good at, whether it's making something with your hands, cooking, writing, music, art, etc. If you're more technical you could fix someone's computer, make them a website, etc. You could also write a letter to someone telling them all the reasons why you like them! That's probably a gift they wouldn't forget. Sometimes we think we're not good enough to give someone something personal. It's embarrassing. But how much more would you appreciate a one-of-a-kind gift than one that you could have bought on your own? Even if your personal skill happens to be making lots of money, how about something such as a museum membership, Netflix subscription, or other gift that "keeps on giving" without requiring more manufacture and waste. (By the way, when I searched for some more ideas online, almost all I found were websites selling "alternative" Christmas gifts. No! I wanted something handmade! More websites selling "handmade" gifts. How about homemade? Plenty of ideas for homemade gifts, but all slanted towards kids. What, adults are too grown up to make something?)

Christmas is supposed to be a "holy day," celebrated as the birth of Christ. The solstice is also the time of the ancient winter festivals of Yule. The spiritual, not the material, should be the primary focus during Christmas; as such, make sure you get some time to yourself to contemplate the meaning of this time of year.

Weight Loss

Even though your diet can be a major factor in determining your energy level, susceptibility to disease, digestive health, mood, et cetera, most of the people who take into account the connection between food and health are those who want to lose weight. The vast majority of diet books out there are narrowly focused on a single goal: adjusting a person's food intake to help them lose a few pounds. In addition to the diet books there are also the exercise regimens, and even the diet pills, and every once in a while a news segment on how overweight everyone is. In this realm of thinking food is treated as pure calories, and people who want to lose weight are supposed to eat low-calorie meals through exercising their willpower. Since the recommendations for losing weight are so uniformly dreary, dieters are often stuck in a constant struggle between actually enjoying themselves and suffering for the sake of either being "healthier" or of looking slimmer-the way we are all supposed to.

In my opinion the weight-loss industry fits the definition of a "racket"; their recommendations are just grueling or boring enough to keep many people from ever being able to fulfill them, while still extending the possibility of hope that keeps them in business. While I do agree that there are many people who'd be healthier if they lost weight, I think a different approach to the whole situation is necessary, starting with an attempt to understand how we got to this place.

First of all, the diet that most Americans eat, and the way that we eat it, does tend to create health problems, though not always weight gain. Some people do gain weight over time (in different places for different people), while others develop other "diseases of lifestyle": heart attacks, digestive disorders, depression, diabetes, even cancer. Because of our different body types and metabolic rates, we have different reactions to the same foods. In the Indian medical system of Ayurveda, there are three different body types, the Vata, Pitta, and Kapha (or Winter, Summer, and Spring): the Vata is usually tall and skinny, the Pitta is short and sturdy, usually naturally muscular, and the Kapha is large and curvaceous, and difficult to move - someone with a lot of natural gravitas. The Kapha body type is better than the others at storing extra energy as fat. Thousands of years ago, when people were likely to go through periods of famine from time to time, the people who were genetically better at storing fat, like the Kapha type, were more likely to survive, because their bodies would break down the fat to be consumed as energy, thus fending off starvation.

What was once a natural advantage has become a liability in our calorie-rich, thin-focused society. Everyone suffers in their own way from eating a poor diet, as I said above. Some get chronic diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, and IBD, or have high cholesterol and high blood pressure, migraines, or depression. But only for people who react to low-nutrient food by gaining weight is the connection obvious. While everyone else's health concerns are on the inside, and their causes supposedly unknown, overweight people are seen as weak-willed, lazy, and having only themselves to blame. This is sad because in traditional Ayurvedic thinking, and Indian culture, the Kapha type is the best: typically the most beautiful, natural leaders, and most powerful. Everyone wants to be Kapha. But since our culture idolizes the impossibly thin person (on top of encouraging us all to eat junk food) even Kaphas who weigh what they are supposed to weigh feel like they are fat, because they are not straight as a stick (a characteristic of the Vata, or Winter type).

As you can probably guess from the above, my recommendations for weight loss are not about will power or setting up the individual to fail. It's not easy to transition to a healthy diet; when we're tempted with endless quantities of sugar and fat, it's because our bodies are used to those substances being scarce, and therefore crave them. But the difference in how you feel from eating well is enough to make most of us never want to go back to our old diet and lifestyle.

Eight Recommendations for Losing Weight:

These are recommendations that I've given to my clients that have worked for them. They are founded on dietary theory, but I include them because they actually make a difference when followed, and are not that difficult to follow.

1. Chew your food. Of the many good things that happen when you do this, I'll mention two: chewing your food breaks it down before it gets to the intestines, which makes it easier for the body to digest and pass on. Nothing helps weight loss like not having food stuck in your intestines! Also, because of that extra step of digestion, and the slower eating that is necessary, we are more satisfied with less food and more likely to notice when we've had enough.

2. Eat vegetables last. Vegetables, fruit, beans and whole grains all have fiber, a substance that moves food through the digestive system. If you eat your salad first and meat or pasta last, the salad will pass through while the others just sit there. Eat vegetables last, and they will push through the food that came before them - cleaning out your system. Isn't it funny how the American Dietetic Association recommends 25-30 grams of fiber per day but doesn't tell you how to utilize it? I've never bothered to count my fiber grams, but I eat greens at the end of a meal. Problems with stomachaches and indigestion may also clear up for you.

3. Drink more water. Sometimes when we feel hungry we are in fact thirsty. If you're hungry between meals, try drinking water and see if the hunger goes away.

4. Eat more healthy fats such as organic animal fat, olive oil, sesame oil, coconut oil, and fish oil. One of the worst things dieters have to put up with is the pendulum swing of weight-loss diet fads. People are still getting over the idea that fat is bad for you (hopefully, they'll also eventually get past the concept that carbs are bad for you). There are certain forms of fat that are healthy and necessary for life. One good thing about fat is that it is filling. Replacing fat with something else just makes you want to eat more food in an attempt to feel satisfied. If you eat enough fat during breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you probably won't want to eat until the next meal. So put butter on your oatmeal or brown rice, gravy on your turkey, olive oil on your greens, etc. You will end up eating fewer calories - and they'll be healthier than the ones in the fat substitutes.

5. Do something you enjoy for exercise. There are many different kinds of activity for us to choose from - running, swimming, biking, weight lifting, yoga, gymnastics, martial arts, dancing, competitive sports, rowing, Frisbee, juggling, etc. - but if it doesn't energize you, I wouldn't recommend it. Interestingly, many people have lost most of their weight just by going for long walks, without any exercise equipment needed. I find that exercising purely for some intangible concept of health can feel like a chore. Once you do find an enjoyable mode of activity, though, it can become addictive.

6. Indulge during dinner. The foods most likely to be chemicalized, artificial junk foods are the ones we eat in between breakfast, lunch, and dinner (or in place of those meals, when you're too tired to cook). If you try to starve yourself during mealtime, you'll likely be hungry when it's not mealtime and eat something unhealthy. So I recommend eating at very specific, consistent times every day, and making sure that you eat enough during one meal to last you to the next - despite any urge you may have to reduce your portions.

7. What else is nourishing besides food? Sometimes I eat as a way of reducing stress, because it makes me feel better. If I realize that I'm eating junk, I try to find some other way to reduce stress. Here are some sample ideas for a "nourishment list": read a book; take a hot bath; get a back massage from your friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse; take a walk; watch a movie (especially a comedy); exercise; clean your house; meditate; paint; play an instrument; bake (homemade cookies are better); talk to your friends, take five deep breaths, play cards, get dressed up, dance, or just write down all the good things that have happened to you today.

8. Eat whole foods and natural sweeteners. A lot of weight gain comes from eating manufactured and processed food. A package of oreos has as many calories as a table piled high with grains, beans, vegetables, fruits, and animal food. And even with all those calories, you're still starved of vitamins and minerals. Thus we can be both overweight and malnourished at the same time. As I said before, it can be awkward to transition to whole foods, and not through any fault of our own. Junk and fast food is designed to be easy to eat and addictive. So the most important recommendation is really never to feel any guilt about the struggle, because those sorts of feelings can paralyze us into not even trying to be healthier and happier. Instead, think positively about yourself and your capabilities. This may be the hardest recommendation to follow, but with it all the others become much easier.

The Edible Kitchen

One step in developing a healthy diet and lifestyle includes reviewing your kitchen tools, and asking yourself the important question: Would I eat this?

Of course, we don't sit down to chew on pots and pans (though the sight of certain Le Creuset pots, or copper-bottomed pans, can make my wife and I drool), but there's a very close connection between the health of your food and what you use to prepare it. Having cookware you like can influence how much you cook for yourself. It can also influence how your food tastes, and what kind of meals you choose to make. It can change how you enjoy your food overall. For most of college I carried around a large Chinese bowl that I could use to eat an entire meal (soup, rice and beans with broccoli, chicken, etc). I would think to myself that if this bowl ever broke I would be devastated. But why am I asking this silly question about eating your cookware? Well, that's just what we do, in small amounts, anyway. If your food has ever tasted plastic-y following, say, microwaving it in a Tupperware container, you know what I mean. I find that one of the best ways to inspire people to eat better is to create an inspiring environment for making food, and that starts with a few simple tools that are sturdy and safe to cook with.

All cooking tools used to be made with naturally occurring materials, starting with clay, a substance that has been known to have healing properties when applied orally or on the skin. Being fireproof, earthenware could be used to boil water and cook food, though it is capable of cracking and doesn't heat very evenly. Metal cookware, developed later, doesn't have these flaws, though only metals that can be heated to normal cooking temperatures without undergoing a chemical reaction are suitable. Copper is unanimously the best cooking metal, due to its high conductivity, though it is usually layered with stainless steel to prevent reactions. These pots are very expensive. Cookware that is 100% stainless, while it does not react chemically, does not conduct heat quite as well. A better conductor that is less expensive than copper is Cast iron. Cast iron does not heat very quickly, but the heat spreads evenly and does not diffuse rapidly. With seasoning, it also gradually forms a nonstick coating. For this reason stainless is best for jobs like boiling water for pasta, while cast iron is better for sautéing or for bean soups such as chili.

The beautiful thing about stainless and cast iron (and copper too, if I could afford it) are that they will last forever, and become more valuable and effective with use. Ultimately your goal is a seamless blend of cookware and food. Sautéing with a cast iron pan will undoubtedly result in little flecks of iron - an essential mineral - in your food. The act of seasoning suggests that you could even list the cast iron pan with the ingredients in a recipe.

There are some other cooking tools out there which I wouldn't recommend. Some cookware is made from aluminum, a metal which has undergone some notoriety because scientists have noticed a correlation between Alzheimer's disease and significant aluminum levels in the brain. This is not proof that aluminum is responsible, but it's worth mentioning that, unlike some metals, such as zinc, magnesium, iron, etc., aluminum is completely unnecessary for function of the human body. Nevertheless it's found in everything, from pans to baking powder to deodorant to antacids to even water supplies. Since we know stainless steel and cast iron are harmless, I'd advise sticking with them.

Teflon, patented and manufactured by the company DuPont, has a couple of strikes against it. The Teflon-making process creates a significant amount of environmental waste, including a carcinogen byproduct known as perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA. PFOA has been found in the drinking water of communities near DuPont's Teflon manufacturing plants. For this reason alone I would suggest staying away from Teflon. I think that while we're making choices towards improving our health, we should also be considering how those choices affect the health of others. However, there are two additional concerns related to cooking with Teflon. One is that pieces of Teflon can flake off the pan and end up in your food. The manufacturer claims that these particles will pass through your body unimpeded and not cause any health problems, but it's not clear to me that ingesting pieces of a synthetic plastic will not impede your body's function.

Teflon is also capable of releasing harmful toxins when heated. Since most cooking pans are meant to encounter heat at some point in fulfilling their function, this can represent a problem. There is some debate about at what temperature Teflon releases toxic fumes; the manufacturer claims that Teflon is stable up to 600 fahrenheit. However, the fumes from Teflon pans have been known to kill caged birds at temperatures of 350-400 fahrenheit, normal cooking temperatures. This is sort of a case of "canaries in the mineshaft"; while Teflon won't kill us like it will kill a small bird, it will release fumes that can cause flu symptoms, headaches, and contribute to the number of toxins in our system. Compare this to heating cast iron or steel. What happens? They get hot, that's it.

The "advantage" of Teflon is that it is non-stick. However, a cast iron pan closely approximates the non-stick qualities of Teflon without any of the chemicals or toxins. Directions for taking care of your cast-iron pan are in the recipe section. Some people like Teflon because it enables them to cook with less, or without, oil. But considering that oil and fat are now being found out to be much healthier for us than has been thought in the past, it seems worth sacrificing the fat-free diet so that you can go on the toxin-free one. Teflon is also not that cost-effective as the Teflon degrades and the pans will have to be replaced over time, creating more waste. If you're going to eat and breathe your pans, choose cast iron and stainless. Wouldn't it be nice at the age of 70 or 80, to still have the pan you made all your delicious meals in? Like you, it will only have gotten better with age.

Cooking with Stainless Steel:

Food can easily stick to stainless steel frying pans. To reduce food sticking in stove-top skillets, wait to add food until the cooking oil's surface has a wave of movement to it but is not smoldering. Add food carefully to maintain an oil layer beneath it, and do not attempt to move food until it loosens (as it cooks) and can be easily flipped or moved. Also, use a metal spatula.

Cooking with Cast Iron:

A cast iron skillet should be seasoned both to prevent rust and to provide a non-stick coating. Seasoning consists in applying a layer of oil, such as sesame oil, coconut oil, olive oil, or organic animal fat (not fish oil) to the surface of the pan with a paper towel (not too much - just the lightest layer, or it will get sticky and gross). When washing the skillet, do not use soap or use it very lightly. Use instead just a scrubber or brush with hot water, quickly dry the pan (with a towel or on the stove), and reapply the layer of oil. It can take a few seasonings for the non-stick capabilities to take effect.

Recipes

Knead-less Bread

3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp yeast

Mix together the flour and salt in a largish bowl. Be creative with the flours--usually whole grain breads come out dry and dense, but you will see that this bread always comes out moist and airy, no matter what. Try proportions like: 1 cup all-purpose, 1 cup whole wheat, 1 cup rye. Our latest rendition is 2 cups all-purpose unbleached, 1 cup rye.

If you are using instant yeast, you can add it straight to the flour and salt and move on to the next step. If you are using active dry yeast, first add it to about 1/4 cup warm water (105 degrees F) and let it sit for 5 minutes. Then add another 1 1/4 cups water to make the 1 1/2 cups called for above.

Add the water (or water with yeast, see previous step) to the flour mixture and stir together so that the flour is completely wet. The dough will be extremely sticky! Cover it loosely with plastic wrap and put it in a warm (70 degrees), out-of-the-way place. We put the bowl in the microwave--yes, we found a use for it!--with the door cracked. This does 2 things: air can circulate, and the light stays on to keep the dough warm.

Now for the hard part: leave it alone to rise for 18 hours! This is why kneading is unnecessary. The dough is wet enough that the gluten in the flour can still come into alignment to make the firm crumb all us bread-bakers are after--it just takes a long time. This also allows the bread to ferment a little.

When the time comes, turn (or rather, tug, with floured hands to prevent it sticking to your hands) the dough out onto a very floured towel. Shape it into a circle-ish, flour the top, cover with the other half of the towel. Now let it rise again for another 2 hours. About half an hour from the end of this time, turn the oven to 450 degrees F, and place a 4-6 quart covered cast iron enameled pot OR all-metal (plastic handles melt and smell bad) sauce pan into the oven.

Then at the end of the 2-hour second rise, pull the pot out of the oven and take off the lid (carefully!). Working quickly, slide your hand under the towel and turn the dough into the hot pot. Shake the pot once or twice to even the distribution a little, pop the lid back on (don't forget the oven mitt) and put the whole thing back in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, then take the lid off and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Turn out onto a cooling rack.

Last step? Try really hard to wait till it cools a little before digging in! This really is the best bread you will ever make--airy and moist inside; crispy and flaky outside. Mmm!

Hamburgers

Most of us just rub a little salt and pepper on our hamburgers before grilling or cooking them. When you have really fresh, high-quality ground beef, the result is very flavorful. Sometimes, though, it is nice to try a little something different. One of my favorites is a little Middle-Eastern in flavor. If you aren't in the mood to try something outrageous, don't worry--it's still a hamburger; if you like Middle-Eastern, it will remind you of kibbe. For every pound of ground beef, add about 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (more or less depending on your daringness), a few shakes of ground cloves, and a few shakes of paprika. Don't forget to salt it to taste, but you can skip the black pepper. Cook them according to your favorite method.

For another change, try using a long slice of the bread from the above recipe cut in half for a bun!

Add your usual toppings (we like Monty Jack, lettuce, tomato, and barbecue sauce), and some sides of root vegetables and greens, and you have a complete and filling meal.

Acorn Squash (for dessert!)

Cut an acorn squash in half and scoop out the seeds. For each half: Add a few tablespoons of maple syrup, a tablespoon or two of butter (or non-hydrogenated butter substitue), a sprinkle of cinnamon, and a tiny sprinkling of salt (the salt actually brings out the sweetness of the maple syrup). Add about two or three tablespoons of water.

Cover each half with aluminum foil tightly and place the half face up on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until the flesh of the squash is meltingly soft. Check the squash halfway through to see how the water is doing. You may need to add more as the squash absorbs it, but not too much or your dessert will be too watery. I like to mash mine up to get the syrup to all parts of the flesh. This can be done in the skin, or dumped out into a bowl. Eat it warm.

I bet you never thought you were willing to have squash for dessert...that is, other than pumpkin pie!

Forward to a Friend

It's such a pleasure to help those closest to us become happier and healthier. Please forward this newsletter to friends, family members or colleagues who might be interested and inspired by it. If you received this newsletter from someone else, but would like to be sure to receive it again, email me with your address and I will include you on my mailing list in the future.

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