Along with the increasing presence of soy foods in grocery stores and on restaurant menus has come increasing controversy over soybeans and thyroid health. We’re not surprised to find strong conflicting opinions in this area because scientific research on thyroid and soy is both complicated and inconclusive. Here’s what we know – and what we don’t know – about this important issue.

Soy Isoflavones and Thyroid Function

Research on soybeans and thyroid health has focused on one specific category of nutrient found in soybeans: isoflavones. Isoflavones are phytonutrients that belong to the much larger phytonutrient family called flavonoids. (Most foods contain flavonoids, and many vegetables are especially rich in this family of phytonutrients.) The best studied isoflavones in soybeans are genistein, daidzein, malonylgenistin, and malonyldaidzin. It is very clear that at a molecular and biochemical level, isoflavones in soy have the ability to change thyroid cell events in at least two ways that might be interpreted as posing a risk to the thyroid’s health.

Read more about this at WHFoods.org

I have a colleague who is doing this detox diet under the guidance of a doctor and he can only eat 17 grams of sugar per day. Now, that’s not a lot. Did you know that there is 1 gram of sugar in 1 leaf of romaine lettuce? He used to eat romaine salads and has now switched to spinach as it has no sugar per leaf. So, just out of curiosity, I counted my sugar grams for a typical day. I didn’t change anything in my day, just ate what I normally eat and it added up to 25 grams. Wow, I thought, is that ok? So I did a bit of searching on what levels are appropriate for an average healthy person. I checked out the Heart Association guidelines as there is new evidence of the connection between heart disease and sugar consumption. Turns out I’m about 5 grams over my limit. For women it should be around 6 teaspoons, (there are approximately 4 grams per teaspoon). For men it’s 9 teaspoons. Get this, kids should only have about 3 to 5 teaspoons. The other day, I saw a kid come to school with a Vitamin water. Guess how many grams of sugar. 13 grams! Yikes. So that was the daily intake for that child in 1 bottle.

Check out this link to get more info and find out how you can reduce your sugar intake. Heart.org

I love Mother’s Day. It’s fun to have a day to celebrate being a family and spending some time together. Our family usually enjoys a special brunch or dinner either in a restaurant or made by my husband and son. It’s nice, since I’m the primary food preparer, to have a meal prepared for me. Don’t get me wrong. I love cooking and sharing a wonderful meal with my family, but sometimes it’s just so nice when someone does it for me.

I saw this info today and I thought I would share it with all of you who have kids. I find it is a fine line communicating about foods filled with sugars and not calling them bad. Everyone is now talking about how toxic sugar is and how little we all should be eating. I would love to hear how you communicate to your child about such foods and limit their intake.

Happy Mother’s Day!

(from WHFoods.com)   This is the week we are celebrating Mother’s Day, every day should be a celebration of both mothers and fathers! As parents we have a huge responsibility to do the best we can to help our kids eat more healthfully. This past week I read a wonderful article by Casey Seidenberg who got down to the basics of healthy eating for kids. With increasing rates of obesity, diabetes, and eating disorders, and looking back on my own childhood, I found her suggestions both heartfelt and made of good old common sense that can sometimes be forgotten in the foray of childrearing:

• Food, especially unhealthful food, shouldn’t be used as a reward. The common incentive used by parents “Eat your vegetables, so you can have dessert” clearly communicates to children that vegetables are to be avoided and desserts are to be desired.
• Food should not be used as a punishment either. Taking away dessert as discipline teaches kids that dessert is the prize.
• Labeling a food as “bad” can cause children to feel guilty or bad themselves when they eat it. Instead label unhealthful foods “sometimes foods,” as they really are the foods we should eat only sometimes.
• Unhealthful foods shouldn’t be labeled “treats” either. Wouldn’t it be great if our kids perceived a delicious ripe peach or a slice of summer watermelon as a treat?
• A child forced to eat may not learn what it feels like to be hungry or full, or how to listen to his body. Sometimes kids are not hungry. That’s okay. Don’t then force them to eat five more bites.
• Teaching children that a holiday or celebration is about spending time with friends, participating in a fun activity or being active together, instead of simply consuming a lot of food and drink, is an important message. When our kids are teenagers and win a sports championship, or when they are adults and receive a promotion, we hope they will understand that celebrating does not need to be focused on excessive consumption of food and drink.

She concludes that it is best not to deny unhealthy foods, but rather keep them to a minimum. Kids can learn that some foods are better for nourishment and make you feel good. School gardens and kitchens where kids participate in cooking their food have come a long way to help in this regard. When we learn our healthy eating habits at a young age, it is much easier to continue them as adults. Teaching kids healthy eating patterns lay the foundation for a healthier society!

Strawberry Recipe for Mother’s Day
The combination of strawberries and chocolate is an all-time favorite, and this week George shows you how to combine them in a recipe that requires no cooking and is ready in a matter of minutes. Learn how to make his special version of Strawberries and Chocolate Créme with George.

Strawberries
It’s no wonder that strawberries are the most popular berry in the world. Not only do they have a wonderful fragrantly-sweet flavor, they are also rich in antioxidants and an excellent source of vitamin C. In fact, one cup of strawberries provides 136% of your Daily Value for this important nutrient.

What You Should Know About Strawberries
Researchers have recently ranked the 50 best antioxidant sources among commonly eaten foods and found strawberries to be quite exceptional … The Latest News About Strawberries.

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5 Healthy Habits for Managing Psoriasis

Unhealthy habits can affect the health of your skin and worsen psoriasis. These healthy habits will help you manage psoriasis symptoms and make life less stressful.

Psoriasis is a chronic condition that can’t be cured, but it can be controlled. And adopting certain healthy habits, such as the right psoriasis skin care, helps to give you that control.
Not only will a healthier lifestyle help you manage physical symptoms, it can help you feel better overall. “Keeping yourself and your skin as healthy as you can also improves your quality of life,” says Valori Treloar, MD, CNS, a dermatologist at Integrative Dermatology in Newton, Mass., and author of The Clear Skin Diet.

Here are five healthy habits that can help you manage psoriasis symptoms:
1. Manage stress in your life. Stress can worsen psoriasis symptoms in some people, Dr. Treloar says. If you’re one of those people, it’s important to control stress. To do that, start by simplifying your life. Learn to say no to friends, family, and coworkers if what they’re asking you to do is more than you can comfortably handle. Participate in relaxing activities, such as yoga, meditation, or tai chi. “Find a stress-reduction activity that you enjoy and practice it daily,” Treloar says. “You have to practice to get good at it.” You can also reduce stress by adjusting your reactions to the world around you. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong, try to focus on what’s right and what makes you feel good.
 
2. Avoid skin irritants. When buying soaps and shampoos, be wary of those with added fragrances and perfumes. Scented formulas can sting or irritate skin that’s already inflamed. Read labels, and look for fragrance-free soaps, shampoos, body washes, and even laundry detergents. Also, avoid waterless, alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Their alcohol content can not only sting your lesions but also dry your skin, which can make existing psoriasis lesions worse and contribute to new flare-ups. “If you’re sensitive to laundry detergents, double rinse your clothes to get out the soap,” Treloar says.
 
3. Keep your skin moist. After a shower or bath, pat — don’t rub — your skin dry. Then apply a moisturizer — the sooner and the thicker, the better. Applying moisturizer immediately after a shower or bath helps trap moisture in your skin. Ointments are better than lotions for holding the moisture in. Continue to apply moisturizers throughout the day, especially in the winter when the air is drier. Find a moisturizer that you love, and you’ll be more likely to use it, Treloar says. To help keep your skin moist in winter, try using a whole-house or room humidifier.
 
4. Quit smoking and limit alcohol intake. “The first thing I tell my patients is, if you smoke, stop. If you drink, know that it can make your psoriasis worse,” Treloar says. Not only is smoking a common trigger for psoriasis symptoms, it adds to your risk of developing cancer and cardiovascular disease. And people with psoriasis already have a higher risk for a number of medical conditions, including cancer and heart disease. Alcohol, too, has been associated with psoriasis though the link is unclear. “Most studies show that increasing alcohol intake is associated with new onset of psoriasis or worsening of psoriasis.”
 
5. Eat healthy. To help you manage your psoriasis skin care, it’s important that you get all the nutrients needed for healthy skin. Be sure to include fruits and vegetables in your diet because they are loaded with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Limit foods that are high in fat and cholesterol. A healthy diet will help you maintain a healthy weight, and maintaining a healthy weight will help you not only feel good physically, but also emotionally — important because people with psoriasis are at higher risk of depression.

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Acupuncture, Chakras and Cancer Treatment: Psycho-Neuro-Endocrine Balancing

While overall cancer rates have slightly declined over the last 10 years by about 1 percent continues to be a major scourge of our society. The American Cancer Society projects that about 1.6 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in 2012 and about 577,000 people will die from it. This means that roughly one third of those diagnosed will die within five years or less in spite of medical care.

In the cases of both cancer and auto-immune diseases the body is in a self-destructive mode. The normally beneficial functions of cell replication and immune protection go into overdrive in ways inappropriate to health and survival. Most medical therapies focus on using various forms of chemo-therapeutic and immune-suppressive drugs to prevent further damage. These are useful, but limited in that they are not addressing the root of why the body is acting against its own survival.

By Darren Starwynn, OMD, LAc
Read the entire article at Acupuncture Today.

>Many of you know that I am a big Abraham-hicks fan. I was listening to a recording the other day and this person was asking about how to feel good with where he is right now and still take it to the next level. Abraham said you can’t feel both things without them contradicting each other. The best way to take your life to the next level is to be really, truly happy with where you are in this moment. In that happiness is where you will attract the next level, better things in your life. If you are busy telling the universe that you love where you are, but you really desire the next level, then you are sending out the vibration of not liking where you are right now. Boy, this was a big one for me. I love looking at where I’m heading next and how I’m going to get to the next level. I’m always in action and planning. A light bulb when on at that moment. If I just relish the moment of where I am and what I’m doing right now, doors will open more easily to take me to the next level. Maybe I won’t have to do so much action to get things moving.

So try this, feel really good about your life right now and have that feeling over and over again. See what happens next. I’d love to hear how it goes for you.

>We had a lovely Easter Dinner at Stellina‘s in Point Reyes Station. It’s a great little place with excellent food. What I like most is when they are telling you about the specials and the fish, they tell you where the fish came from and if it is farmed or wild. They also tell you what’s organic and what is vegan. It makes ordering so simple as these are often questions I have to ask after I’ve picked a couple of things I might like to order.

I ordered a wonderful mixed green salad and the Halibut. The fish was served over mashed chickpeas with fennel and kalamata olives. Yum is all I have to say about it. My son ate half the fish along with his pizza. That is one downside, they didn’t have a fish dish on the kid’s menu. I’ve got one of those kids who never ate from the kid’s menu. And I’m really pleased about it. No fish sticks, no chicken fingers and no pasta with red sauce. I never understood why restaurants don’t come up with a better kid’s menu. I always ordered the fresh fish and veggies and we would share.

Hope you all enjoyed some extra yummy food over the weekend.

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• 1 glass of water upon rising (we recommend room temperature water with the juice of 1/2 a fresh lemon with a few shakes of cayenne pepper)
• Plenty of water throughout the day (especially in hot weather or when exercising)
• Limit water with meals (too much water with a meal or too close to a meal may interfere with or dilute digestive enzymes)

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An Eater’s Manifesto

As many of you may know, I listen to a lot of books on CD as I’m in my car a fair amount of time. I can usually get through a book in a week and it makes my commute so much more enjoyable. My latest favorite is In Defense of Food. It’s so simple and he explains food issues so clearly. Like what’s up with all this non-fat food? And why is sugar making us such a fat nation? Give it a read or listen as I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

From their Website
Food. There’s plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it?
Because most of what we’re consuming today is not food, and how we’re consuming it — in the car, in front of the TV, and increasingly alone — is not really eating. Instead of food, we’re consuming “edible foodlike substances” — no longer the products of nature but of food science. Many of them come packaged with health claims that should be our first clue they are anything but healthy. In the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by confusion. The result is what Michael Pollan calls the American paradox: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we seem to become.

But if real food — the sort of food our great grandmothers would recognize as food — stands in need of defense, from whom does it need defending? From the food industry on one side and nutritional science on the other. Both stand to gain much from widespread confusion about what to eat, a question that for most of human history people have been able to answer without expert help. Yet the professionalization of eating has failed to make Americans healthier. Thirty years of official nutritional advice has only made us sicker and fatter while ruining countless numbers of meals.

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Did you know that a 5-ounce serving of crimini mushrooms contains only 31 calories and is a great source of all the B vitamins? B vitamins are essential for reducing cholesterol levels, helping to prevent Alzheimer.s and cardiovascular disease, and for energy production. Crimini mushrooms are an excellent source of riboflavin, pantothenic acid and niacin, as well as a very good source of thiamin and vitamin B6, and a good source of folate, all of which are B vitamins necessary for carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism. Riboflavin (vitamin B2) plays at least two important roles in the body’s production of energy. It is part of a molecule that allows oxygen-based energy production to occur. It is also necessary for the recycling of glutathione, an internally produced antioxidant that plays numerous key protective roles in our bodies, including protecting our energy-producing mitochondria from oxidative damage. Pantothenic acid (vitamin B5) also plays an important role in the prevention of fatigue since it supports the function of the adrenal glands, particularly in times of stress. Niacin (vitamin B3) is necessary for the conversion of the body’s proteins, fats, and carbohydrates into usable energy. Although most of us enjoy mushrooms as a tasty addition to many recipes, we seldom recognize them as a powerhouse of nutrients. So, enjoy crimini mushrooms as a part of your Healthiest Way of Eating, not only for their great flavor, but also for the array of energy-boosting nutrients they deliver.Read More


7-Minute Healthy Sautéed Crimini Mushrooms