Skip to content

12 of My Favorite Products

I enjoy sharing my experience of how to make healthy food doable.  I’ve compiled a short list of the top things I think add value, flavor, and nutrition to my diet so that you can try something new that just might make changing your diet easier and more pleasant.

  • 1. Sea Salt: I have 3-4 different types of salt in my cabinet.  The 2 main brands I use are Realsalt, Celtic Sea Salt.  We have a find grind of one and course of the other.  I am generous in my use of salt from the earth not just for flavor but for the balanced array of additional minerals that are essential to obtain from the diet for all our biologic processes.
  • 2. Vitamineral Greens – I hear all the time from my patients that they don’t like veggies or don’t know how to get them into their diet.  Here is your answer! This product is not cheap but it is concentrated and includes herbs, sea vegetables, and healthy greens in an easy to use powder.  I really like the flavor but I love vegetables.  You can just add it to a smoothie or mix with juice, a nondairy milk, or water and voila – several servings of veggies down the hatch!
  • 3.Gelatin and collagen hydrolysate – Great Lakes and Vital Protein are the 2 brands I use interchangeably.  This is a very easy to digest protein powder containing all of the essential amino acids.  It’s a great way to add protein to soups, smoothies, or anything.  Both companies use grass-fed cows raised in South America, which is a concern for me regarding deforestation, but for those with weak or sensitive digestion it can be worth the compromise.  Note that the collagen hydrolysate is the type that easily dissolves in hot or cold whereas  some care to dissolve the gelatin is recommended.  
  • 4. Coconut butter – my favorite treat for satisfying the need for something sweet. So many ways to use – as a spread, as a smoothie add-in, as a coconut milk sub when stirred into water, etc.
  • 5. Holy Mate Tea from EcoTeas – this is a mild earthy tea with tulsi, peppermint, and yerba mate.  I am sensitive to caffeine and I have no reaction with this tea at all.  
  • 6. Kelp noodles – adds crunch and texture with no calories.  Easy to use, just rinse in water cut and add to anything. 
  • 7. Red Boat fish sauce – no unwanted additives and no sugar – just fish and salt! Sure beats all the cheaper brands at the store.  My Vietnamese friend recommends it too!
  • 8. Vegan yogurt starter from Cultures for Health – I have been dairy free for eons, and didn’t know how to make yogurt until I found this. Super easy with just coconut milk and some gelatin to thicken. Creamy and tangy like regular yogurt.  Fantastic for breakfast w/your favorite add-ons like blueberries, chia, and pumpkin seeds. 
  • 9. Veggie culture starter – I like the flavor this culture gives to my cultured veggies instead of just using sea salt. 
  • 10. Justnaturalskincare – Totally clean labels – nothing weird – truly natural – made by hand in FLorida, great skin care and hair care. We love the shampoo, conditioner, shea body butter, and several creams and lotions. 
  • 11. American Health Chewable Super Papaya Enzyme Plus – I literally feel my food digesting when I take these. Kids love them – call them minties. I keep on hand especially for eating out or if I eat a bit beyond full. 
  • 12. Wild Planet canned fish – sardines, salmon, tuna that I don’t have to worry about (compared to other brands). I keep on hand at all times for quick-to-add protein. 
Posted in My Faves, Tidbits | Comments Off on 12 of My Favorite Products

Adaptogenic Herbs

There is a lot of talk in the natural health world about adaptogens such as rodiola and boswellia.  I’d like to provide a brief overview as the term is not self explanatory, so that you can perhaps consider supplementing with one or several to enhance your energy and clarity naturally.

  • Adaptogenic herbs restore overall balance and strengthen the functioning of the body as a whole without impacting the balance of an individual organ or body system. Adaptogens facilitate these changes by a wide range of actions and energetics, rather than one specific action. Adaptogens can be stimulating and/or relaxing, many help improve focus, support immune system functioning, or provide some other broad-spectrum normalizing influence on unbalanced physiological processes.
  • By definition, the active properties of the adaptogenic herb must be safe, non-toxic, and non-habit forming, even when taken over a long period of time. When taken daily as a tea or extract, these herbs can help improve your mental functioning and allow your body to adapt more easily to stressful situations, relieving an overactive adrenal response. However, herbs should not be used to push us beyond our limits and cannot replace the benefits of good restful sleep. These herbs are of better use to our health and healing when paired with the appropriate need or used as gentle tonics.
Posted in Tidbits | Comments Off on Adaptogenic Herbs

The Amazing Ear – who knew!

As I reflect and review what I learned this past weekend from Dr. Raphael Nogier, I am even more blown away by the beauty and complexity of the human form, and life in general.  I’m sure most people realize how complex and mysterious our bodies are, but when we go back to the fundamental laws of nature that govern all life and matter, we find that healing does not have to be so frustrating and intangible as Western Medicine sometimes makes us feel when we get turned away without solutions to our ailments.

 

Let me tell you some very interesting facts about one small overlooked body part.  The ear.

 

  1. The ear has the most complex innervation of any body part.
  2. The ear contains all 3 layers of embryologic tissue: ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm.
  3. The size of a point in the ear is 0.2 mm. So tiny!
  4. Many ear points consist of a Neurovascular Complex (NVC) containing an artery, a vein, a nerve, and a lymph vessel. This means they hold a direct connection to the immune and nervous and vascular systems!
Posted in Tidbits | Comments Off on The Amazing Ear – who knew!

Inner and Outer Knowledge

I am a learner. Learning fuels me, keeps me going. I’d be dead if I wasn’t always learning. While I’m most interested in health topics, I also care about world affairs and cultures, animals, nature, physics, chemistry, and more.  But I’m not interested in knowledge for knowing’s sake. I want to seek information that I can apply to help myself, my family, or others.

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that while I’m driven to seek the wisdom set forth by others before me, that I, and each of us, has an inner wisdom that should not be discounted or overlooked.   However, I’m not saying that my inner wisdom is like having an Albert Einstein or know-it-all at my disposal.  The wisdom I refer to is the heart of Chinese Medicine – the way that we fit into nature and the universe, and that somewhere inside me I know the best choices and that it’s my mind that bars the truth from being manifested.

Instead, I believe we must mine our inner selves for the buried knowings we carry with us as part of our divine nature.  Quiet introspection, whether in formal meditation or through mindfulness, allows our inner wisdom to bubble up to the surface of consciousness, where we can harvest it with our minds.  I find this to be a daily exercise, the process of getting to know myself.  I have been kind of amazed at how I feel like I’m just really getting to know myself now, in my late 30’s!  But with that realization came the understanding that it will take my lifetime to really get to know myself fully, if I’m lucky enough to live that long!

I am happy that in my field, I can tap my intuition, that inner wisdom, when I interact with my patients.  I can use my inner eye to see my patient more wholly, and go beyond the facts to catch underlying aspects and really get deeper with healing.  A big part of what I love about holistic medicine is how intimate it is.  I believe that connection forged between myself and my patient becomes part of the healing.

Posted in My Thoughts | Comments Off on Inner and Outer Knowledge

An Obsession or a Preoccupation?

You may have noticed from my posts that I love to cook.  I love to eat.  I love to share my passion for healthy eating!  I know how daunting it can be to change the way you eat.  Trust me, I’ve been through it all.  Over the years of changing my habits and striving for better health, I’ve learned a few things.

One thing I’ve learned over the years, is that food is not the only thing we consume.  We eat attitudes, words, thoughts, emotions, and the ambience surrounding our food.   It may seem abstract but it’s fundamental biology that if we are tense or in fight or flight, then the digestive system shuts down to shunt its energy to our muscles, etc.  So that’s one thing you can do right now today.  I recommend getting a book about mindful eating at the library.  Thich Nat Hanh has one, and there is Yoga of Eating by Charles Eisenstein.

Another thing I’ve learned is that big changes like what and how we eat is not an overnight thing.  That change is most likely to be successful if we have support – whether it’s a professional, friend, or family member to hold you accountable and be a cheerleader for you.  We sometimes want reassurance that the sacrifice is worth it, that we’re making a choice that will have a positive impact.  If you know someone else struggling with their health you can see if they’ll partner with you so you are not doing it alone. Ideally the people you live with support this, but we can’t control anyone but ourselves so you cannot count on that.  I am always glad to provide that support as your coach, as well.

So be patient with yourself, try new foods, relax, and have fun! I never knew 20 years ago the foods I’d be loving now!

Posted in Functional Medicine | Comments Off on An Obsession or a Preoccupation?
630-335-1069 Directions Contact/Schedule