This week I discovered that my book has a soul mate:  Brain Wash.

Brain Wash is to brain health what 21^st-Century Guide to Living Cancer-Free Naturally is to immune health. While each book addresses their own primary concern, they both present similar solutions to a larger objective: health of the total body and mind, and a happy spirit.  And, happily, this is not an unattainable goal.

Father and son authors David Perlmutter, MD and Austin Perlmutter, MD get it.  They get how contemporary life, despite the endless opportunities it affords us, is messing with us nonetheless.  Big time.

Worrisome data confirms this:

• Rising suicide rates (56% increase between 2007 and 2016 among adolescents in the U.S.)
• Depression (400% increase in antidepressant prescriptions in the U.S. since the 1990s)
• 25% insomnia rate among adults. 

That's just a small taste of the serious 21^st-century issues.

The authors call it “disconnection syndrome”, defined as a state...

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and chocolate (in heart-shaped boxes or otherwise) can be found in every corner of the grocery store. 

So, which is it?  A health food?  Or a junk food?

Largely, it depends on which version of chocolate we're referring to -- KitKat or cacao.

Most of us are familiar with the KitKat of which an astonishing 650 bars are consumed each second globally, according to Nestle.¹  Its ingredient list is a telltale sign of its rank on the nutritional ladder.

• Milk chocolate (sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, whey powder, lactose, soya lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, natural flavour)
• Wheat flour
• (More) sugar
• Modified palm oil
• Cocoa
• Sodium bicarbonate
• Soya lecithin
• Yeast
• Natural flavour
  

As you can see, a "chocolate" bar can consist of more than just chocolate.  And in this case, it is mostly sugar -- 21 grams, in fact.  That's more than 5 teaspoons in a 43 gram serving. That fact alone...

Since this is my first blog of 2022, I would like to extend to you my very warmest wishes for a bright and beautiful year!  May you be blessed with genuine health and a happy heart—all year long!

To this end, I have assembled for you (and for myself too) a 22-point check list of simple yet profoundly effective steps and strategies that we know, from science (and common sense), are found to lead us toward a well life.  

In the last couple of years, I fear, we have started to slide away from this intention.  Is this not true? I mean, sure, never before in my own lifetime has humankind become so obsessed with the fear of becoming ill. 

But avoiding sickness and death is not the same thing as embracing wellness and life.

 In fact, some of the very practices enforced by, let’s just say, those ‘in positions of power’ are contrary to the practices that facilitate health.   However, it is not too late to reclaim our personal...

“What?  No cheese!”   This is one of the most frequent laments I hear from my clients embarking on a cancer-free diet.  Believe me.  I feel your pain.  I don’t eat it very often either. 

Here’s why:

Most cheese made in Canada is made from cow’s milk that has been pasteurized, a process that destroys enzymes, beneficial probiotic bacteria, and most B vitamins. This makes it is essentially a “dead food” and hard to digest, increasing risk of food sensitivity and stressed immune systems in those who eat it.

A large case-control study conducted in France found that women who ate cheese regularly had 50% more risk of breast cancer than women who didn’t eat cheese.

So, yes, I love cheese.  But I love having healthy body parts even more.

That was why I was thrilled to try this non-dairy recipe, adapted from Paulette Millis’ “Jack Cheese”, published in Cook Your Way to Health.  

I...

Okay.  I’ll admit it.  I’ve been on a bit of a “cauliflower kick” lately.  This recipe is too good to keep to myself though.  (That would be selfish.)  So I’ll share.

If you google “Cauliflower Popcorn” you will get a lot of hits. A lot a lot a lot.   I can’t speak for the other 8,400,000 versions of this recipe , but this vegan version is good.  Really good. OMG, my husband and I effortlessly polished off an entire head of cauliflower by ourselves in one sitting—popcorn style!

I can’t exactly remember where this recipe originated from, which is too bad because I really would like to thank the contributor.  Whoever you are out there— thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

First, a word about nutritional yeast:

It is a great source of B vitamins.  It’s got trace minerals needed for gene regulation, metabolism, growth, and immunity.  One tablespoon contains 2...

As the Christian world immerses itself, or soon will, into the sacred season of Lent or Great Fast, I am fascinated by how science is suddenly catching up to this age-old tradition.  

Even if religion is not your thing—but caring for yourself is— you may wish to grab a page or two from this 40-day period of preparation leading up to the celebration of Easter, and some of the spiritual disciplines that rest at its foundation: silence and solitude, prayer and meditation, and fasting.  

SINKING INTO SILENCE AND SOLITUDE

It was customary, in the early Christian church, for the holy monks to retreat into the desert for the duration of Lent for some serious “alone time”.   

Maybe going forty days without seeing or talking to even one other person is “not your thing” either, but carving out some time each day for solitude and silence is a practice worth pursuing for the purpose of one’s physical  and mental health.

...

I never used to think of cauliflower as a “sexy” vegetable.  This recipe changed all that for me.  Roasting it whole with flavor-enhancing garlic, smoked paprika, and oregano transforms ordinary cauliflower into, well, let’s just say—VAVOOM!  Its cancer-fighting, immune-strengthening, health-promoting properties are a bonus.

First a word about oil.

Cooking with oil is a heated subject.  This is because we probably weren’t meant to get our oil intake from anything other than the whole foods from which the oil is extracted.  In order for oils to withstand high cooking temperatures, they require some degree of refining.  However, once oils are refined their nutrient quality diminishes.  That’s the sad truth.  The trick, therefore, is to select the healthiest version possible, use as little as possible in cooking, and to pair it with ingredients that offer the most nutrition possible.

So, here’s my...

I am asked, almost daily, whether or not I will be rolling up my sleeve for the vaccine when it becomes available to me. You know the one. 

Usually, I begin my response with a sigh.

Then I say, “You first”.

I’m in no hurry.

On the one hand, I get it. Over the past year, we all have  been “worried sick” about what this virus might do to us and to our loved ones.  We are weary of the restrictive lifestyle imposed by this pandemic.  The stress. The fear.  The uncertainty.

We just want “it” to be over!  We long for a return to a life of health, safety and normalcy.

Conventional thought among the medical profession, media, government officials, and the public at large is that no effective ways currently exist to stop the SARS-COV-2 virus except by healthy hygiene practices (hand-washing), wearing masks, social distancing—and now, vaccines.

Personally, I find the potential “unknowns” associated with...

The following article has been reprinted with permission from the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service.

OMNS archive link:  http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml

For your free subscription to OMNS:  http://orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html . 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, January 15, 2021

A Health Crisis Exposed by the COVID Pandemic

Commentary by Charles Bens

(OMNS Jan 15, 2021) Conventional medicine treats the symptoms of chronic disease, while functional medicine treats the root cause of the disease. There are over 40,000 clinical studies that support the conclusion that functional medicine is safer, more effective and less costly than conventional medicine, and yet very little movement in that direction has occurred in recent years. Dr. David Eddy confirmed this problem with his report on the lack of efficacy of conventional medicine. [1] This article explained that conventional medicine largely comprises "Medical...

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a fabulous holiday season despite any social restrictions that may have been imposed upon you by the pandemic-management guidelines.

If you compensated for the void with an overindulgence of Christmas cookies and too many Suits episodes on Netflix, your body may be telling you that it is READY for a return to your former-- and more sensible -- lifestyle and dietary habits.

I know mine is!  Really is.  So this week I am eating soup.  Favourful, satisfying, nourishing soup. 

Smoky Bean and Barley Soup

This Smoky Bean and Barley Soup is—to use the seasonal metaphor— “comfort and joy” in a bowl. It will extend that holiday spirit without giving you that holiday food hangover.

It is also chock-full of immune boosting onions, garlic, carrots, celery, tomatoes, and peppers.  Barley is a source of potent antioxidants (tocotrienols and tocopherols, natural vitamin E). The grain and legume combination makes this...