Many things affect how easy or hard it is to change behavior, like improving your eating habits and how you take the time to take care of yourself. It’s not just having the knowledge of what to do.

It is unfair to compare your efforts to anyone else’s “success” at making changes.

Strive to do YOUR BEST to eat healthfully and have a healthy and active lifestyle. Nutritional supplements can play a supportive role to help you feel better and achieve a better quality of health.

Each one of us is unique – our life experiences and our needs. Find your own ways of making changes to improve your personal health.

Find the changes that will meet less resistance and will be more productive for maintaining long-term change.

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Many Things Affect Your Relationship with Food and Self Care

Why changing your diet is about more than knowledge:

• Individual childhood experiences can affect your relationship to food, eating and your body; we have all developed our own unique relationships.
• Some of us eat when we are hungry, others eat as an emotional outlet or use food (even withholding it) to try to exercise control, rebel, be loved or be “perfect.”
• Your cultural and family relationships affect your beliefs about food, body image, exercise, smoking, drinking, achievement and more.
• We all have our own unique set of genes, predispositions toward disease or good health.
• Everyone has a different body type and a different metabolism.
• We all have different life experiences, stressors, coping skills and support systems.
• Psychology and motivation is a key aspect of attaining and maintaining good health.

So ask yourself, do you have any roadblocks to making changes to better care for yourself with a healthier diet and lifestyle?

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It’s been known for thousands of years just how important the food we eat affects our health.

These quotes say it so well….about how we are all responsible for taking care of ourselves, starting with healthy food and lifestyle.

Perhaps the most famous quote about food and health….

“Everyone has a doctor in him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well. Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food.”
– Hippocrates, Greek Physician (460 BC – 377 BC)

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“You are what you eat” probably comes from….

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.”
– Brillat-Savarin, French Author of The Physiology of Taste, (1755- 1826)

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Early wisdoms about looking at the body and health in a holistic way….

“To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.”
– Buddha, founder of Buddhism  (Born in Nepal in the 6th century BC)

“The part can never be well unless the whole is well.”
– Plato, Greek Philosopher and Mathematician (est. 428 BC – 348 BC)

“Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise, will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”
– Edward Stanley, British Statesman (1826-1893)

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Rethinking the definition of health…..

“Health is not simply the absence of sickness.”
– Hannah Green, American Author (1927-1996)

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Predicting the future of healthcare….

“The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”
– Thomas A.  Edison, American Inventor (1847 – 1931)

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Differentiating between real food and fabricated products that look like food….

“Don’t eat anything your great-great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. There are a great many food-like items in the supermarket your ancestors wouldn’t recognize as food.. stay away from these.”
– Michael Pollan, American Author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and others (1955 –  )

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I love being reminded of  these truisms about health, food and nutrition!

These wise thoughts about food and health are even more important in the 21st Century!

Our food supply in the U.S. is not as nutritious as it used to be.
(See my blog on the changes in Soil both nutritional and microbial content.)

Our environment and food supply contains many chemicals and compounds that tax our bodies — pesticides, GMO’s, additives to processed foods, trans fats, etc. — putting an added burden on detoxification.

I adhere to these age-old truisms and support clients’ health with food first. And, I also use targeted nutrition supplements for nutritional support, detoxification support and activities of everyday living.

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Not that long ago, juicers and professional blenders used to be for the “granola” crowd. With so many people juicing or making smoothies and protein shakes today, it’s hard to imagine that a generation or two ago juicing was still a novelty.

In the mid-1980’s, I was a consultant to the Acme Juicer Manufacturing Company, a subsidiary of Waring. My job, as a nutritionist and Registered Dietitian, was to “open up” the mainstream markets to the product and show that it was not just for the alternative (“post-hippie”) health food market.

A very talented home economist (Marjorie) and I developed an assortment of healthy recipes that made use of the fruit or vegetable pulp (rich in fiber and other nutrients) that was commonly discarded. The dishes had to be delicious, so in addition to our own recipe taste-testing, our families were our informal taste panels. My husband ate so many foods with carrot pulp that his skin turned orange! (This is a benign condition known as Carotenemia, usually caused from excessive intake of carrots or other vegetables that contain large amounts of the pigment carotene, which happens to also be a precursor of Vitamin A.) This went away after a few days “off” the recipes.

Marjorie and I met personally, “one-on-one,” with food, health and nutrition editors of national magazines and major newspapers and demonstrated the Juicerator by making some of the recipes for them. It was a big hit. Many major publications featured the juicer and recipes and quoted some of the nutritional information that I provided as a Registered Dietitian.

One of the media placements, in the Los Angeles Times, “Mechanical Helpers for Getting the Juicy Best of Fruits and Vegetables,” is still on the Internet.
Click here and it will take you back to the juicing age of 1986!

P.S. I still use my Acme Juicerator to make juices and also love my Vitamix for smoothies….both great ways to eat raw foods, get a wide variety of digestive enzymes and hearty dose of health promoting phytonutrients.

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The Food and Drug Administration is the US agency responsible for defining “Gluten-Free” and for mandating gluten-free food labeling requirements. Gluten is a protein naturally found in grains such as wheat, rye and barley.

Nearly 3 million Americans have celiac disease, an autoimmune disease that damages the lining of the small intestine. When someone with celiac disease eats a gluten containing food, the body’s immune system overreacts to the proteins in gluten.

This causes an inflammatory response which damages the lining of the small intestine and impairs the ability to properly absorb nutrients from food. When unchecked, this can lead to very serious health issues long-term.

Many more people have gluten sensitivity (not the same as celiac disease) and experience GI discomfort like bloating or diarrhea when eating foods with gluten.

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How Does FDA Define Gluten-Free? (from FDA.gov)

In addition to limiting the unavoidable presence of gluten to less than 20 ppm, FDA allows manufacturers to label a food “gluten-free” if the food does not contain any of the following:

• an ingredient that is any type of wheat, rye, barley, or crossbreeds of these grains,
• an ingredient derived from these grains and that has not been processed to remove gluten, or
• an ingredient derived from these grains that has been processed to remove gluten, if it results in the food containing 20 or more parts per million (ppm) gluten

Foods that are inherently gluten-free, for example bottled spring water, fruits and vegetables, and eggs can also be labeled “gluten-free” provided any gluten that came in contact with the food is less than 20 ppm.

A food label that bears the claim “gluten-free,” as well as the claims “free of gluten,” “without gluten,” and “no gluten,” but fails to meet the FDA requirements for use of these terms is considered misbranded and subject to regulatory action by FDA.

There are no valid tests to detect gluten in foods that are hydrolyzed and fermented, like cheese and yogurt. So if they display a gluten-free claim, manufacturers must keep certain records to show that the foods meet “gluten-free” standards.

If you have any doubts about a product’s ingredients and whether or not the product is gluten-free, the FDA recommends that you should contact the manufacturer or check its website for more information.

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“Not So Obvious” Ingredients that Contain Gluten

• Bulgur (form of wheat)
• Couscous (made from wheat)
• Farina (made from wheat)
• Hordeum vulgare (barley)
• Malt (made from barley)
• Secale cereale (rye)
• Seitan (made from wheat gluten)
• Splelt or Triticum spelta
• Triticum vulgare (wheat)
• Triticale (wheat and rye cross)
• Wheat or barley grass (will be cross contaminated)
• Wheat germ oil or extract (will be cross contaminated)
• Wheat protein or hydrolyzed wheat protein
• Wheat starch or hydrolyzed wheat starch
• Wheat flour or bread flour or bleached flour

Sometimes ingredient listings are more vague. Some ingredients can come from a variety of grains and the manufacturer may not specify which one they are using.

These are ingredients that may contain gluten:

• Artificial flavor or artificial flavoring (can come from barley)
• Dextrin and Maltodextrin (may be made from wheat)
• Hydrolyzed plant protein (HPP) or Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) or Vegetable protein (can come from wheat, corn or soy)
• Modified starch or modified food starch or vegetable starch (can come from wheat)
• Natural flavor or natural flavoring (can come from barley)
• Seasonings or flavorings

Ingredients are confusing and they don’t tell you everything. Even if the ingredients seem OK, gluten-free foods can be cross-contaminated with gluten-containing foods at the manufacturing plant and contain trace or more amounts of gluten, enough to cause a reaction in some people.

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