SUMMARY: I always share good worthwhile Workshops. Here’s your chance to participate in a FREE Workshop led by Dr. Mark Hyman’s group. He calls it a Detox Workshop, but it actually is going to get you off the sugar and carb addiction roller coaster. This Dr. Hyman Free 10 Day Detox Challenge is something everyone should try! What you learn will change your health and help to keep you off, or move you off, the diseasespan! Dr. Hyman is the Director the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine which opened in 2014. Since then, it has expanded twice to accommodate more patients, and the wait list at the start of 2017 was still 3,000 patients. Good luck getting seen there! Dr. Hyman is also the founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center, chairman of the board of the Institute for Functional Medicine, a medical editor of The Huffington Post, and was a regular medical contributor on many television shows including CBS This Morning, Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, and The View, Katie and The Dr. Oz Show. Participating in one of his Workshops… WELL… It doesn’t get much better than that! Sign up. NOW!!!
TWO Salmon CAke SCD PALEO Gluten free recipes with Coconut and Almond Flour
Summary: These TWO Salmon Cake SCD PALEO Gluten free recipes are game changers! These gems are way better then traditional restaurant versions AND they eliminate all those filler ingredients like breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, and Worcestershire; see below for why I never use those ingredients! When you open my fridge you’ll often find these salmon cakes for quick grab, but they are totally EASY, eloquent, and redic delic as an appetizer or entree for guests and at holiday celebrations. One recipe uses coconut flour (for AIP) and eggs as binder, the other uses butternut squash and an egg, and they hold their shape beautifully! They are PALEO, SCD, GAPs, and UMass IBD-AID legal. They are FODMAP and AIP legal with the garlic and onion HACK and other modifications detailed below. Truth be told, we often snack these at the end of the night, with a glass of red wine (a great anti-inflammatory — see here), candle light, and a drizzle of real fermented SCD Delicious Homemade Dijon Mustard — find the recipe posted here, or it is on my Pinterest Condiment Board. This is the lifestyle pillar I talk about so often! Hitting your body with safety signals from as many different directions as possible truly FEELS and tastes great!
Learn Vitality, Memory, Hormones at this Wellness Conference
SUMMARY: I want to let you know about this amazing 3rd annual Citizens of the World Wellness Conference, that you can attend, hosted by The Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill on May 5, 2017, in Greensburg, PA. This year, “Lifespan Rhythms: A Focus on Memory, Hormones, and Vitality” is the theme. Come and learn the latest studies about the Vitality, Memory, Hormones link. Expert speakers throughout the day will discuss how to support families across the lifespan with a focus on MEMORY IMPAIRMENT. I participated in last years conference and am thrilled to do so again this year. I don’t normally give you a heads up of opportunities like this unless they are truely worthwhile learning opportunities. This conference makes my cut! If you can attend, you’ll leave with a boatleg of practical information! Come learn about the Vitality, Memory, Hormones link.
Concise Summary of SCD Studies
SUMMARY: Here is the Concise Summary of Specific Carbohydrate Diet, or SCD Studies with a focus on SCD for dietary treatment for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Actually though, SCD is used for many conditions, not just IBD. This post focuses on the boatload of studies evaluating SCD for IBD because that is where most of the SCD research is happening. Make sure you look at the comments below this post for even more links to studies that have published since I released this post. You’ll even see that modified versions of SCD are also in study for IBD like PRODUCE, CDED, CD-TREAT, IBD-AID, Low FODMAP, Mediterranean! [Sabino et al 2019]. The findings support that once gut irritating foods are removed, the immune system changes because the gut microbiome changes. That should be true for whatever condition SCD is used for. Take this Round-table of SCD studies to your doctor and ask for support especially if for IBD. They should liaison with those already integrating the SCD into IBD dietary therapeutics. SCD helps IBD with or without medications and can be used to induce remission for many with and without medications. Always, the goal of treatment is IBD remission, not necessarily medication-free. Half of the 417 patients surveyed [Suskind et al., 2016] use the SCD to induce remission; the other half use it adjunct to medications because of medication failure. Think how many guts could be saved! Dr. David Suskind (leading light GI at Seattle Children’s Hospital integrating SCD into IBD clinical dietary therapeutics) explains [Suskind Dietary Treatment YouTube, 2016] that some use SCD alone if with mild to moderate symptoms at diagnosis. Others use SCD along with medications and then once in remission, it may be possible to wean off medications. Consider giving some of the SCD tenets (especially the emulsifier elimination) a try regardless of your disease, or for aggressive preventative health. Diet that removes gut irritants is that powerful because it changes up the microbiome where over 70% of immunity resides! What do you have to lose????
“Introduction to Microbiome” presentation April 19, 2017
Summary: If you are in the Pittsburgh area, stop in and hear the “Introduction to Microbiome”presentation April 19, 2017 over at the Camelot’s Columbian Room. Why is this presentation really important? The microbiome is a newly discovered organ where over 70% of your immunity resides AND many inflammatory and chronic diseases (from Type 2 Diabetes, to autoimmune, to dementia and Alzheimer’s) have been found, beginning about 2013, to have a microbiome inflammatory skew. Diet and lifestyle hugely alters our microbiome constituent members in pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory directions (see posts here and here). The “Introduction to Microbiome” presentation explains what the microbiome is and factors that impact it for the good and bad. These findings are out of the key microbiome labs that have made pivotal contributions to our understanding of the microbiome. To know where you are going microbiome-wise, you need to know where you’ve been microbiome-wise, and that means getting your arms around all the factors that impact it, good and bad. You will better understand the state of your microbiome (and your families) and leave rethinking how food and lifestyle can better your microbiomes which it can, immensely. The microbiome is a newly discovered organ we need to support for sure, and from the current disease epidemics, we are obviously not doing a very good job. How bad are our microbiomes? The National Institutes of Health’s “Human Microbiome Project” was billed as a “road map” of human microbes. But as Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, a microbiologist at New York University who is working to repopulate C-Section newborn skewed microbiomes said, the effort is “really the American Microbiome Project; it’s not the “Human Microbiome Project.” — How the Western Diet Has Derailed Our Evolution? Come… learn!
2017 EWG Clean Dirty list
SUMMARY: Here it is, the 2017 EWG Clean Dirty list… Buy produce to the EWG Clean/Dirty list to preclude the most toxin loads! Also, consider those that are most dirty for growing in your garden or buying at clean farm markets!
The big changes from last year… Spinach jumps to second most dirty and pears appear for the first time…
2017 EWG Clean Dirty list (full list here)
The Dirty Dozen, in order of greatest to least toxin load, is: strawberries, spinach, nectarines, apples, peaches, pears, cherries, grapes, celery, tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, and potatoes.
2nd Pittsburgh Fermentation Festival
Summary: Just sharing a fun educational event, that literally could change your health, wellness, and vitality, occurring this Sunday, February 26, 2017, in Pittsburgh should you be nearby. The FREE event is the SECOND Pittsburgh Fermentation Festival or read the Ferment Festival Facebook page. I’ll be attending and talking about how ferment consumers and vendors can become a cohort for upcoming American Gut fermenting microbiome studies! Last year I profiled many for participation and if you missed that, but still want in, or to ask me ANY question on microbiome, ferments, diet, and health, stop by my table and let’s catch up! Added onto this year’s Ferment Festival… attend the potluck night Saturday night! BONUS: See below for Cleveland Clinic, “5 Reasons You Should Add More Fermented Foods to Your Diet.” Share this post to pass on the info!
SCD Coconut Milk Recipe and Sourcing
Summary: Learn this EASY SCD Coconut Milk Recipe! Never again slurp down emulsifier and gum ingredient additives that wreck your gut with inflammation contained in commercial coconut milk! But if you must source commercial coconut milk, I’ve included some cleaner brands to look for. Why must you ditch and eliminate commercial coconut milk or coffee drink creamers (or any food for that matter) that contains emulsifier and gum ingredients? Read this post for a refresher, but the short of it is they wreck your gut with inflammation that is on the order of causing (in mice anyway) IBD if predisposed, and if with a normal immune system, say hello to chronic low-grade intestinal inflammation and metabolic syndrome. With 35% of all U.S. adults, and 50% of those 60 years of age or older, having metabolic syndrome, it is time to ditch those gut inflaming ingredients and give your gut the tools it needs. I’m posting this recipe now since the “SCD Warming Non-Dairy Latte Does Your Body TRIPLE Good” recipe is coming next up, and that uses… drumroll pls… coconut milk!
Eat eggs. Help heart, brain.
SUMMARY: Eat eggs. Help heart, brain! Learn about two January 2017 studies (Finland & UConn) that found a high-cholesterol egg diet did NOT increase risk of dementia or Alzheimer’s, and it improved the lipid profile! Serum antioxidants increased as well! Also learn about the benefits of eggs, egg quality, and pass the word to avoid BPA exposure (plastics used for food storage) especially for those pregnant and during lactation because low dose BPA exposure (below that which the FDA considers is safe) increased the risk of an egg white allergy for infants. AIP folks literally separate the white from the yolk for re-introduction! Last, think about eggs as a healthy fat boosting carotenoids as found in the salad — egg studies posted here.
Another Microbiome Introduction Presentation today!
Summary: Looking forward to giving today’s Microbiome Introduction Presentation! Rather amazing that many of the healing diet vegetable and fruit tenets, being micronutrient, phytonutrient, and antioxidant rich AND containing fiber that actually nourishes the microbiome, follow the vegetable and fruit recommendations from the cancer centers like Dana-Farber Brigham Women’s! Bonus of the healing diets is that they contain healthy fats that permit the absorption of those necessary food components!