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Nutrition In The Hampton’s

A week ago I visited NYC and Southhampton for a much needed vacation. I was pleased to find each restaurant we visited was very helpful in modifying their menu to fit our (mainly my) nutritional needs and wants. In the Hampton’s, there was a whole foods like I’ve never seen. It was a farmer’s stand turned into a Whole Foods. It had a large selection, yet for my picky standards it had slim pickings. It was also far out east. Hampton Bays, on the other hand, has an amazing market called wild by nature, which reminds me a lot of southern California’s jimbo’s, my all time favorite grocery store chain. I was very surprised to find such a great gem after being somewhat disappointed by whole foods.

We stayed at the Atlantic Hotel which is where we were recommended wild by nature as well as a Greek restaurant across the street from them. Both turned out to be outstanding choices. Atlantic hotel!

After we got back to NYC we found better whole food markets and met up with a big part of the NYC CHEK crew, where else but at the union square farmer’s market! We ran into Antonio, Rafael, Jackie, danyelle. It was great to see the gang again. Tomi came to the green square tavern with his all grown up son tj, where we had a hearty dinner. Hoping to run into Gigi and John, the owners. Unfortunately they were both out of town. The RFID was great only to be topped by the company, Tomi, tj, Rafael and antonio. We leach had the amazing flour less chocolate cake. Yummy!!!!

Sunday morning we woke up to 4th avenue being closed off to traffic and being populated by vendors as far as the eye could see. We ventured into having “street meat” which turned out to be quite good. It definitely counted towards the 20% allowance of less than ideal quality foods.

Sunday night’s dinner was at a cute French restaurant near Columbus circle. I liked the restaurant but the selection for me was dim. When I asked what they had that was gluten free, I got a weird look and an option of 2 types of fish. At the end, our bill included a 20% automatic gratuity.

What are your experiences of food availability on vacation or travel?

Get Better Results by Improving Your Digestion

One major obstacle I see over and over that keeps clients from achieving their desired outcomes is poor digestion and assimilation of their food.

Regardless of how nutritious what you put in your mouth is (biodynamic, organic, fresh, raw), it still comes down to what you actually assimilate and are able to a) turn into new cells, b) use to repair damaged cells or c) use for energy.

Here are a few tips you can do with slight modifications to your current routine:

1)  Chew your food thoroughly!

  • this may seem too simple but we often forget to chew our food
  • how many times should you chew your food before you swallow it?  ….. the answer is: until it’s liquid!
  • chew your drink and drink your food – Mahatma Gandhi
  • since digestion begins in your mouth, that’s where you get the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to improving your digestion and assimilation

2) Drink 250ml to 500ml (1-2 cups) of filtered water 15 – 30 minutes before eating a meal

  • for added benefits, add a half teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to each 250ml of water you drink
  • you can also add freshly squeezed lemon juice (half lemon per 500ml)
  • start with only 1 cup (250ml) of water and half a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and/or lemon juice
  • this process will help increase your body’s hydrochloric production before meals

3) Start your meals with something raw (salad or vegetables)

  •  this will increase the enzymes in your stomach, further enhancing digestion

4) If you can find, natural, organic and low sodium pickled vegetables, eat them with your meals

  • home made pickles, sauerkraut, pickled peppers would be ideal but more effort

5) Avoid drinking water or any other liquid while you eat (soups are an exception, they’re already food)

  • this helps minimize the dilution of the stomach acids while you eat

6) Avoid drinking water or other liquids for 90 minutes (hour and a half) after you finish your meal

  • this also ensures maximal digestion and absorption of your meal
  • start with 30 minutes and work your way up to 90 minutes

7) Eat when calm and set uninterrupted time aside for eating

  • our mental and emotional state affect our digestion so make sure you have time to enjoy your meal

8) Pay attention to how you feel after eating certain foods and avoid eating things to which you maybe sensitive

  • the main culprits of food sensitivities are: grains, pasteurized dairy, nuts and sometimes eggs

Follow this protocol before each of your 3 main meals.

For long term digestive system health, I suggest increasing friendly bacteria in the gut through food.  If you can tolerate them, high quality yoghurt and kefir are excellent at replenishing your gut flora (a MUST during/after taking antibiotics in any quantities).

Ideally you’d ferment your own (using cultures that are available in stores or better yet, from friends who already do their own fermenting) otherwise you want to get the plain (non-flavoured) variety.  Once manufacturers add flavour to anything, the quality of the product goes down.  You can add your own flavour by mixing in your favourite berries or jam.

The two brands of apple cider vinegar I recommend are:

The yoghurt/kefir brand that I would recommend is:

What tips do you have to share with others to improve digestion even further?

How To Accelerate Recovery And Rehabilitation

Is your recovery from an injury or surgery too slow?  Have you wondered how some people can bounce back from an injury or even surgery quickly?  That’s because they’re feeding their bodies what it needs to repair, rebuild and regenerate itself.

To accelerate healing, your best bets are consuming relatively large quantities of protein.  The easiest building blocks for our bodies to turn into human cells are protein from animal sources.  Things like fish, meat and eggs.  A good rule of thumb is to get at least 50 grams of protein into your body by noon (from real food).  50 grams of protein is roughly 228 grams of meat (or 7 – 8 eggs depending on their size.)

Another really good source of a muscle, bone, tendon, cartilage and skin tissue rebuilder is gelatin.  Bone broth is an excellent way to consume gelatin because it comes with a host of other beneficial nutrients.  Here are recipes for Chicken Broth, Beef Broth and Fish Broth.  For a supplement form of gelatin, I would recommend the products from the Great Lakes Gelatin Company.

Vegetable broths are full of organ healing minerals as well.

Both types of broths also aid in improving digestion, which is a must for us to be able to absorb the nutrients from what we eat.  There’d be no point in eating high quality food without being able to synthesize and utilize the nutrients in them.  A very good way to ensure proper digestion is through eating fermented foods (sauerkraut, beet kvass, kefir, yogurt – non flavoured is the key, since it has the least additives).  Taking high quality probiotics will also heal your gut flora, protecting you from microbes and helping you absorb nutrients from what you eat.  The brands I would take myself are Dr. Ron’s Friendly Flora, Bio-Kult and Innate Response’s probiotics.

(I have no financial interest in any of the brands I recommend.  They’re what my research showed to be of highest quality, which is why I use them with my clients and for myself.)

When you’re looking to repair (or even build) a house, you want the best bricks and other high quality building materials.  The same goes for your body.  Its cells are made up of what goes into your mouth.  The higher the quality and the better the digestion, the more of the building blocks can be used to create a solid structure, be it the connective tissue in the knees, a bicep tendon or the next cells in our eye balls.

A few other tips to speed up recovery.

1) Get a near infrared “heat lamp” and point it to the injured area for about 5 minutes at a time to improve circulation and repair

2) Avoid icing

3) Drink lots of fluids (broth would be great as well as a mix of lemon/honey/sea salt/apple cider vinegar and water)

4) If it’s a joint injury, strengthen the muscles that support and stabilize the joint

5) Increase your high quality fish oil or cod liver oil intake

6) Meditate or perform energy cultivating movements like Tai Chi and Qi Gong

7) Go to sleep early (by 10:00pm) to further speed up recovery since your physical repair happens between 10:00pm and 2:00am each night.  The later you go to sleep the less time your body has to repair itself.

What have you done that worked well to speed up recovering from injuries or surgery?

8 Things You Can Do To Deal With Cold And Flu Symptoms Without Drugs

With the cold and flu season here, you must be wondering what you can do besides taking neo citran and over the counter drugs to speed up your recovery and feel better.

Here are my tips:

1) Eat lots of garlic and ginger.  Both of which are immune boosters and cleansers.

2) Make a concoction of water, honey, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, grated ginger with a pinch of sea salt and drink a liter of it throughout the day to replenish your electrolytes.

3) Eat lots!  Especially meat and good fats (butter, coconut oil, avocado, olive oil)

4) If you have a sore throat, a mix of  unheated honey and raw coconut oil.  That mixture will sooth your throat and destroy microbes

5) If you’re taking fish oils, double up on them until your symptoms subside.  If you’ve been neglecting them, this is a really good time to start taking them.

6) Up your vitamin C intake if you take some, take some if you’re currently having none.

7) Take vitamin D3 (10,000 – 20,000 IU per day or more) until symptoms subside

8) Go to bed early, (10:00pm is good) sleep lots.  Run a humidifier in your room while you sleep if the room is dry.  Bundle up at night so you raise your temperature and sweat.  This signals your immune system to work a bit harder.

Bonus:

9) You could also add a few drops of oil of oregano, propolis and olive leaf extract (very anti-viral) especially if you have no fever.