The media is buzzing with reports that organic may not be worth the money. Researchers at Stanford University announced that organic fruit and vegetables don't have more vitamins or minerals than conventionally farmed produce and that there are no significant nutritional advantages to organically farmed meat.

 

Does that mean that you should trade in organic foods for the cheaper price tag? In most cases, definitely not.

 

 Comparing the nutritional facts of organic vs. conventional products does not get to the heart of the organic question. Even if an organic strawberry isn't any higher in vitamin C than a non-organic, it is free of pesticides, growth regulators, additives, and other harmful chemicals used in conventional farming.

 

 The Stanford study found that pesticide residue on conventional produce was "almost always" under the allowed safety limits, but many experts argue that no amount of pesticide consumption is safe. Pesticides have been identified as contributing factors to conditions ranging from cancer to obesity to ADHD. Pregnantwomen are encouraged to eat organic because studies reveal pesticides affect a baby's IQ in utero, and in 2010, President Obama's Cancer Panel encouraged all consumers to purchase organic produce.

 

  As far as the benefits of organic meat go, take the example of arsenic-laced chicken. This conventional poultry may contain the same amount of protein as an organic chicken, but it was unnaturally fattened, artificially pigmented and fed Prozac to alleviate its constant distress.

 

 

 

 

 

Moreover, organic farming is better for the environment, as it emphasizes renewable resources and sustainable practices that protect waterways, conserve wildlife, promote soil fertility and maintain humane working conditions for fieldhands. Furthermore, organic meat, poultry, eggs and dairy are free of the antibiotics that spawn drug-resistant superbugs, an imminent threat to public health.

 

Dr. David Katz points out, this study demonstrates the misconceptions people have long held towards organics. "Organic does not mean 'nutritious' and never did," says Dr. Katz. "Gummy bears - and sugar, for that matter - may be organic, and add nothing but empty calories to your diet." That is why comparing nutrition facts - such as vitamin and mineral content or calories - between conventional and organic produce is a misleading method of establishing the benefits of organic.

 

The organic label has long been misperceived as a general stamp of health. As the profitability of the organic industry has exploded, there has been a proliferation of highly processed and unwholesome - but organic - junk food. This has been largely enabled by the relaxation of USDA "certified organic" standards, which are compromised by Big Ag interests.

So organic cheese puffs aren't healthy - no surprise there. And perhaps an organic strawberry isn't any higher in vitamins than a non-organic. But buying organic was never about nutritional content. It is a question of what you want to keep out of your body - namely, pesticides and contaminants - more so than what you want to put in it.

The bottom line? Organic produce and meat is still better for you and the environment. But just because it says "organic" doesn't mean it is a health food.

 

Source: Institute for Integrative Nutrition Blog

 

As cooler temperatures of September coincide with the hustle of "back to school", there's no better time for an easy autumn recipe that healthfully fills your cravings for comfort food.

 

This simple seasonal dish can be prepared in big portions and reheated for meals throughout the week. And it's budget-friendly, too!

 

Kamut with Roasted Butternut Squash

Vegetarian, vegan, non-dairy
Servings: Side for 4, Generous main dish for 2

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup KAMUT^®
• 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Olive oil
• 1 small leek, sliced
• 3 shallots, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/3 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/3 teaspoon ground cumin
• Dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place kamut in a small sieve and rinse under cold water. Transfer to a medium saucepan and add 1 ½ cups water, as well as ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt.
3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover with a lid and simmer for 2 hours until tender. Once cooked, drain and transfer to a bowl.
4. While the kamut is cooking, place the cubed butternut squash on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 30 minutes.
5. When the kamut is almost done cooking, heat two tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the leek and shallots, then season with salt and pepper. Sauté gently for 15 minutes or until golden, but not browned.
6. Increase heat to medium-high and add mustard seeds, curry powder, cumin and cayenne, if desired. Cook and stir for one minute to bloom the spices. Add the white wine vinegar and cook for two minutes more.
7. Remove from heat and add to the cooked kamut.
8. Stir in the lemon juice, roasted squash and fresh parsley. Add salt and pepper, as desired. Toss well and serve warm or at room temperature.

*This recipe can easily be made gluten-free by using brown rice, millet, or quinoa.

 

 

 

 

In the last century modern medicine has made incredible breakthroughs in the treatments of some of our worst diseases.

 

So why are Americans still very sick?

 

According to American Diabetes Association in 2011, 8.3% of the population has diabetes. That means 25.8 million people in the United States suffer from a largely preventable disease. And they are not alone. High blood pressure, asthma, and other diseases are also preventable and highly treatable.

Why, then, are doctors stuck in a tug-o-war with their patients' diseases?

 

 A recent New York Times article laments the fact that the evidence based practices that many doctors use do not translate into peoples lives. Part of the disconnect is that evidence based medicine treats the disease, but not the whole person. Some patients do not listen to their doctor's advice out of stubbornness, but most people simply need more guidance than a list of dos and don'ts. Evidence based practices treat human beings like a science experiment.  

 

However, there is another very important side of the healing process: the human element. It's hard to make and maintain meaningful changes in diet and lifestyle while the rest of the world continues on unchanged.

 

Enter Health Coaches. A Health Coach can, show you how to cook, take you grocery shopping and help support you in finding a healthy lifestyle and strategy that works for YOU. Health Coaches do not teach a one-size-fits-all program, they cater to what your goals are and what your body needs.

 

 Many diseases can be partially treated, or have symptoms eased, through diet and exercise. People need to know that they don't have to choose between being sick and eating cardboard-like diet foods. A Health Coach can demonstrate how to prepare delicious meals that will lead to wellness and healing.

 

 We desperately need our doctors and Health Coaches to help heal and prevent disease to ease the pressure on our overburdened health care system and more importantly, it will make us a happier, healthier, slimmer, stronger, smarter and sexier society! Yes!

 

Most of us have been taught to believe that good nutrition is simply a function of eating the right food and taking the right supplements. Of course, this is true, but there's more to the equation. What we eat is only half the story of good nutrition. The other half of the story is who we are as eaters. That is, what we think, feel, believe our levels of stress, relaxation, pleasure, awareness, and the inner stories that we live out all have a real, powerful, and scientific effect on nutritional metabolism.

 

Recent advances in the mind-body sciences have been proving what ancient wisdom traditions have been saying for eons - that the mind and body exist on an exquisite continuum, and profoundly impact one another.

 

So the good news is simply this: you can powerfully change your health and your nutritional status without changing anything you eat, but by changing you the eater. Consider some of these key "secrets" that I think everyone should know:

 

 

It's fascinating how stress, fear, anxiety, anger, judgment and even negative self-talk can literally create a physiologic stress response in the body. This means that we generate more cortisol and insulin, two hormones that have the unwanted effect of signaling the body to store weight, store fat, and stop building muscle. Strange as it may sound, we quite literally change our calorie burning capacity when we're stressed. What's more incredible though, is that as we learn to smile more, ease into life and breathe more deeply, the body enters a physiologic relaxation response. In this state, we actually create our optimal day-in, day-out calorie-burning metabolism.

 

So, you could be following the best weight loss diet in the world, but if you're an anxious mess, the power of your mind is limiting the weight loss of your body. Far too many people adopt stressful weight loss strategies - impossible to follow diets, overly intense exercise programs, tasteless food, extremely low calorie meal plans - all of which can create the kind of stress chemistry that ensures our weight will stay put. It's time to relax into weight loss.

 

 2. Happiness is the best digestive aid.

 

Can you recall what happens when you eat during anxiety or stress? Many people report such symptoms as heartburn, cramping, gas, and digestive upset. During stress, the body automatically shifts into the classic fight-or-flight response. This feature of the nervous system evolved over millions of years as a brilliant safety mechanism to support us during life-threatening events. In the moment the stress response is activated, something very interesting happens - the digestive system shuts down. It makes perfect sense that when you're fending off an angry gorilla, you don't need to waste energy digesting your breakfast. All the body's metabolic energy is directed towards survival.

 

 So, you could be eating the healthiest food in the universe, but if you aren't eating under the optimum state of digestion and assimilation - which happens to be relaxation - you literally and metabolically are not receiving the full nutritional value of your meal.

 

 3. Overeating - it's simpler than you think.

 

Most people think they overeat because they have a willpower problem. "If only I could control my appetite, then I would stop being such a willpower weakling and start losing weight." Well, here's the good news - you don't have a willpower problem. The problem for a majority of overeaters is that they don't actually "eat" when they eat. What I'm suggesting is that we aren't always fully present to the meal, aware of its taste, eating it slowly, or simply feeling nourished by the food. When this happens, the brain, which requires taste and satisfaction, misses out on a key phase of the nutritional experience. The brain literally thinks it didn't eat, or didn't eat enough. And it simply screams back at us - "Hungry!"

 

So, you can dramatically decrease your overeating by increasing your awareness and presence at every meal.

 

 4. Slower eating means faster metabolism.

 

One of my favorite nutritional questions to ask a client or student is "Are you a fast eater, moderate eater, or slow eater?" If the answer is "fast", then it's time for an overhaul. That's because the act of eating fast is considered a stressor by the body. Humans are simply not biologically wired for high speed eating. So when we do eat fast, the body once again enters the physiologic stress response, which results in decreased digestion, decreased nutrient assimilation, increased nutrient excretion, lowered calorie burning rate, and a bigger appetite.

 

The bottom line is that you can literally empower your nutritional metabolism simply by slowing down. What's fascinating is that for many fast eaters, slowing down is quite a challenge. But try this - don't just eat slow - eat sensuously, feel nourished by your food, and take in all the sensations of your meal.

 

 

5. Make sure you have enough Vitamin P - Pleasure!

 

Far too many people are taught to believe that pleasure is something frivolous. Well, it's actually required by our biology. All organisms on planet earth, be they lion, lizard, amoeba, or human are programmed at the most primitive level of the nervous system to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Well, if you're eating and not paying attention, the brain will drive you to seek more pleasure via overeating. What's worse, if you're stressed while eating, the excess cortisol in your system actually de-sensitizes us to pleasure - so you'll need to eat more food in order to get the pleasure we are seeking.

 

The bottom line is this: If you want more pleasure from food, you don't need to eat more of the ice cream. Simply breathe, relax, de-stress, enjoy, pay attention, and the body will naturally experience the pleasure it seeks. And the great news is, since pleasure catalyzes a relaxation response, it actually fuels digestion and assimilation

 

 6. Emotional eating - it's not the enemy.

 

At our core, we are emotional beings - rich, complex, juicy, unpredictable feeling-filled creatures. We love, we celebrate, we laugh, cry, we break down, we rise up... So how could we NOT be emotional eaters? We love food. We love our favorite restaurant. We love how food makes us feel good. Some of us love cooking for others. Some of us are passionate about nutrition. It's time to get over it - if you're human, you will bring emotionality to the table. Once we embrace the reality that we're genetically hard-wired for emotional expression, we can relax a little more.

 

Underneath the quest to eradicate emotional eating from one's life is often found a hidden desire to eliminate uncomfortable feelings. We strive for an impossible to attain goal that constantly leaves us frustrated and in failure. Yes, this thing called emotional eating can be very painful. But it's not the actual problem - it's a symptom that's pointing to something deeper. It's an alert mechanism from body wisdom that's calling us to check in, and follow the flow of emotions within us to see where our soul is calling for more awareness and insight.

 

 7. Get rid of toxic nutritional beliefs.

 

Finally, many of us have absorbed toxic nutritional beliefs that are as harmful and debilitating as any of the toxins in our food. Here's what I mean: it's surprisingly common for people to believe that "food is the enemy", or "food makes me fat", or "fat in food will become fat on my body" or "my appetite is the enemy" or "as soon as I have the perfect body, then I'll finally be happy." Such beliefs may seem harmless, yet they can create a relationship with food and self that's filled with tremendous suffering and pain.

 

Think about it - if "food is the enemy", then we are constantly in a fight or flight stress response whenever we eat, or even think about food. Such a powerful stressor can cause all the problems of stress-induced digestive shutdown, decreased calorie burning capacity, and an inner life that's seldom at peace.

 

The question is: Is your relationship with food nourishing, or punishing?

 

Hopefully, you've noticed that there's way more to good nutrition than simply the food itself. We bring all of ourselves to the table - our hopes, fears, thoughts, feelings, dramas, and dreams.

 

The more we include a well rounded nutritional profile -

Vitamin R - relaxation,

Vitamin P - pleasure,

Vitamin S - slow, and

Vitamin L - Love -

the more we can literally nourish ourselves on every level!

 

 Source: Marc David Author of The Slow Down Diet and Nourishing Wisdom

 

Happy Healthy September

See you all soon!

Sincerely,

Susan Frangos C.H.C. AADP

Certified Health Coach

Higher Level Wellness

847-361-6185