We live in an age of preservatives. Fresh food has almost become a luxury. In the health food world, we advocate that our patients shop the grocery store more around the periphery rather than down the aisles of processed and preservative filled foods. We repeat the cliché that if you can’t read the ingredient on…
The proponents and opponents of countless fads constantly bicker back and forth over their entrenched positions on the internet. The question of gluten, wheat, and their effect on health is old and heated. The doubters of gluten’s negative impact on health have long dismissed this staple of the American diet as having any contribution to…
The internet bombards us with countless promises of the perfect diet or nutrition plan to melt off pounds, make us feel 20 again, and even optimize our bedroom activities. Millions are searching for how to improve their health in a variety of ways and therefore chase after these perfect plans. Sometimes, they land on the…
If only healthy living allowed you to have your sugar-stuffed cake and eat it too. Years of nutritional research, along with billions of dollars, have gone into letting us enjoy the sweetness of sugar without the extra calories and pounds it brings. We’ve wanted to believe that with the help of artificial sweeteners we’ve been…
With old and new viruses running amok and disrupting our lives, nearly everyone is searching for an extra immunity boost. While billions are poured into attempts at finding the next wonder drug, others are searching for those simple hacks of daily life that can get the odds to favor us when we next encounter a…
The concept that ‘food is medicine’ is growing like wild kudzu through the medical world, prompting more and more research like this study on how diet can affect diarrheal infections. This is more than just the “BRAT” diet of bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast after the diarrhea has passed, meant to allow your intestines to…
Parents spend a lot of time and energy trying to get their children to eat more veggies. They also have less and less time, what with the pressures of modern life, to actually get this done. The number and variety of games parents and children play to eat another carrot or ‘a single bite of…
While we know that excess sugar in the diet contributes to a multitude of health risks, we as a society still long for that sweet taste in our foods. For that reason, the industry of artificial sweeteners has bloomed to fill that longing with the taste without the calories. If sweetness were the only criteria,…
Much of our time in providing functional medicine care is spent in establishing balance in a patient’s body. Too little or too much of just about anything can be bad for the person sitting across from us. Take salt for example. It has gotten such bad press relating to blood pressure and heart disease that…
Given that our society is obsessed with self-fulfillment, one should not be surprised that foods are one of the many ways that humans seek happiness. A recent survey indicated that high percentages of different groups between 50 and 80 years of age exhibit an unhealthy relationship with food. By looking at how the individuals thought…