Welcome to 2013!  Have you considered your goals for this year?  Education?  Lose Weight?  Find a Partner?  Get a Job?  Volunteer?

Did you know that your body has several goals in mind?  Is it surprising after the holidays that your body wants a good CLEANING on the inside? And what about REPAIRING all the damage done from lack of sleep, stress, poor diet and injuries?  Finally, part of staying alive and aging gracefully is rebuilding.  Your body replaces and rebuilds in many ways, for example, our skin is replaced about every 35 days.

So coming from your nutritionist, it is no surprise to have me say that what you eat will provide the primary tools for your body to do what it needs to do this year.  That is because our food is what will allow your body to accomplish the goals of CLEANING, REPAIRING and REBUILDING.  So which foods do which jobs?

Plant foods, especially and primarily vegetables and fruits do the work of cleansing the body. While they do contain many vitamins and minerals, plant fibers are difficult for the human body to break down and digest and it is this very quality that allows these foods to serve as an inner brillo pad, scrubbing and removing accumulated toxins and refuse from the body.  This is one of the reasons most people feel very good initially after a cleansing, detoxifying vegetable focused diet because of the cleansing effect.  It energizes, cleans and lifts the body.  For the same reason, very few succeed with vegetarian or vegan diets because there are no significant building and repairing nutrients in a diet made up only of plant foods.  Eventually, the body is unable to repair or build and symptoms reflect it.

It is important to understand that your body needs more than just cleaning.  It also routinely needs to BUILD and REPAIR.  Vegetables and fruits cannot offer the nutrients needed to build and repair.  Only protein and fat can be used to build and repair which includes making new cells, new hormones and new enzymes, for example.  Your ability to heal the body, stay youthful in appearance, have beautiful skin, restore muscle or bone and have a strong immune system will require high quality animal proteins and healthy, natural, undamaged fats to accomplish these functions.

Using this information, you can see that there are times in life where cleansing and detoxification would warrant a diet focused on vegetables while reducing protein and fats temporarily to allow the body to cleanse.  Our Total Body Cleanse is an example of an approach to cleansing in a safe and effective manner.   When we have injury or illness (the need to repair) or are working to build muscle for athletic endeavors and stay healthy during normal daily activities and stresses, it is essential that the diet include a balance of animal protein, undamaged natural fats and good carbohydrates in the form of vegetables and fruits.  Our recommendations toward a cave man or paleo type of dietary path will provide exactly this. Eat Well and Live Well in the New Year!

An Old Tradition Needed Today

Chicken soup has been a well-known folk remedy for the common cold and many of us recall our grandmothers and mothers preparing and providing it when we were small children with a cold or flu bug. So was grandma right in her thinking? She most certainly was! Here at The Woodlands Institute for Health and Wellness we are interested in getting everyone back to good old homemade meat broths and stocks. The reason lies in the fact that meat broths contain a large number of extremely nourishing nutrients in a very bio-available form. And it is no surprise that our grocery store stocks and broths are just not the same thing because industry food processing damages the broth and adds unnecessary and often harmful additives. Home-made broths contain many important minerals, amino acids and vitamins that are very soothing and healing to the digestive tract and the broths provide the essential building blocks for the rapidly growing cells of the gut lining. Broth is also very anti-inflammatory and aids in digestion for this reason. All of this supports a healthy gut, which is mission critical to overall health and wellness.

Broths made from any animal source including fish, chicken, goose, duck, venison, beef, pork or turkey, using bones, marrow, cartilage, joints and giblets are all ideal. If you have a stock pot or a Crockpot, you are ready to make stock! And please, let me urge you NOT to remove the fat content from the stock. We need this saturated animal fat for the healing process and immune function as well. Did you know that most saturated animal fats including beef, pork and lamb fat are actually only about 50% saturated fat while the remainder are mono and polyunsaturated fats? If you do remove it, then I hope you are planning to cook with it!

So as we shift into our coldest months, be thinking about homemade vegetable beef soup or chicken soup or a hearty nine-bean and ham soup and start out with stock made from scratch (see today’s recipe for instructions). Eat Well. Be Well

Reference: Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD. 2012

As you prepare for the holiday season, find one thing you can do to make it nutritionally healthier for you and your family and do it. Here are some ideas:

• Cut the top off of a small pumpkin and hollow it out. Fill it with Roasted Red Bell Pepper  or Sundried Tomato Hummus and surround it with green bell pepper strips, cucumber dials, orange and yellow bell peppers and carrot sticks for a beautiful harvest hors d’oeuvres tray.
• Prepare your pumpkin pie crust using almond flour instead of wheat flour.
• Replace your traditional bread stuffing with a quinoa and roasted winter squash dish. Use the same savory spices of sage, oregano and rosemary. Even include the oysters.
• Surprise everyone with mashed potatoes made from cauliflower.
• When preparing sweets, reduce the sugar by ¼ cup or replace it with a healthier option such as stevia, JustLikeSugar, or Erythritol.
• Prepare less food so that there are not many leftovers.
• Save the turkey carcass and use it to make turkey vegetable soup for the freezer.
• Order a free range, organic fresh turkey.
• Make homemade cranberry relish to avoid the high fructose corn sugar in canned.
• Rather than green bean casserole, serve fresh green beans with melted butter, almond slivers and dill sprigs.
• Insist that everyone you eat with go out for a walk or a bike ride TOGETHER before or after dinner.
•  Give Thanks

Whether you’re trying to avoid degenerative disease or heal from it, one of the most fundamental nutrition concepts to healing and wellness is eating in a manner that controls blood sugar levels and prevents elevated insulin levels.
In the body, blood sugar is called glucose, the most basic molecule that when combined together in complex molecules makes up the food group called carbohydrates. The foods that make up the carbohydrate group are vegetables, fruits and grains. Remember that carbohydrates are a very important component to any healthy diet and most of us need 30-60% of our diet to be carbohydrates. Healing and wellness depend on you choosing the right carbohydrates in your diet.
Vegetables are our wisest, first choice because they include significant fiber, vitamins, minerals and other essential phyto-nutrients. As a result of their components, they digest slowly, are cleansing to the body and alkaline (or soothing) to the body while offering exactly the foods your cells need for healing, repair and optimal functioning.
Fruits offer another good choice, however since they do contain fruit sugar, or fructose, it is important to respect them and control portions and limit servings to reap the benefits while limiting the sugar intake from them.
Unfortunately, despite what the Standard American Diet suggests, grains are the most damaging and unhelpful food source in the carbohydrate food group. Most of our grains are highly refined, quick to digest to glucose and result in elevated insulin levels. Compared to vegetables or even fruits, most grains, especially wheat, do not offer significant sources of fiber, minerals, vitamins or phyto-nutrients. They are acidic (or irritating) in the body, congesting and for many; the gluten can be very destructive.
I can’t remember my grandmother saying, “Eat your grains.” However, I do remember she always said, “Eat your vegetables. I think the precious lady was right!

Most of us have favorable emotions attached to the sweet taste bud. Sweet foods remind us of love and comfort or grandma and her homemade desserts. Unfortunately, our food industry has capitalized on these emotions in their marketing as well as discovered the financial gain possible through the sale of sweetened foods. Our sweet taste bud has been so incredibly over-stimulated that we hardly recognize or enjoy the other four taste buds that include salty, bitter, sour and savory. Enjoying the foods recommended for life by TWIHW can be best accomplished by getting to know your other taste buds a little bit better. Exploring new foods requires trying different preparations of the same food on multiple occasions and eating slowly with intention to “taste” and “experience” the smell, texture, flavor and overall food experience.

Much of our stress comes from not feeling that we’re in control of our circumstances. One thing you CAN control is what you eat every day. Nutrient and mineral dense foods will support your ability to have a good day and cope with daily stresses. Here are a few good nutrition tips to soothe the stresses in your day:
• “Put your own oxygen mask on before assisting other people” – heard this before? Well it applies to you too. Take care of yourself first when it comes to getting good nutrition. It makes you healthier, better able to help others and you are setting a good example for others to follow.
• Minerals have a relaxing and soothing effect on thebody. Magnesium, potassium, and calcium are just three examples of minerals found concentrated in vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. Inside the body, minerals are soothing, alkaline, non-congesting, and relaxing, helping your body to deal effectively with stress and tension. Feeling stressed? Think veggies — not ice cream!
• Avoid processed grains and sugary foods. They create acidity in the body related to congestion, aches and pains, inflammation and degenerative disease. Why add more stress to your body?
• Valerian and chamomile have been used for over 200 years to soothe the soul and reduce anxiety. So take a short break and sit down to a cozy cup of herbal tea with chamomile and/or valerian root extract. Think of 5 things for which you are thankful while you are enjoying your quiet time. Done every night before going to bed, this practice can help with a better night’s sleep too.

Depression continues to be a perplexing and complicated arena and exact causes are not fully understood. But with increasing research and understanding, it is very clear that nutrition plays a critical role.

Chemical imbalances in the brain can be triggered by nutrient deficiencies from a poor diet, too much sugar, alcohol, aspartame (NutraSweet and Equal) and even possibly too many grains in the diet. There are also a number of chemical additives put in our processed and fast foods which may also trigger depression including monosodium glutamate, Acesulfame-K, sodium nitrate, and some food dyes, just to name a few.

Recent studies are pointing to a connection between insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes with depression. This is to suggest that diets high in sugar and rapidly digesting carbohydrates like potatoes, sugars and processed breads and cereals are not only wreaking havoc with our insulin function but are also triggering depression.

So nutritionally, what can you do to ward off depression? Here at TWIHW we would suggest considering a diet that includes plenty of fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds along with quality protein and undamaged fats. Omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin D are both important nutrients in the treatment and prevention of depression so including foods in your diet such as salmon, scallops, tuna, eggs, flaxseed, walnuts, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, mushrooms and Brussels sprouts can be very supportive. Avoiding or limiting alcohol and sugar as well as processed grains and fast food would also be wise steps.

Eating whole, real, unprocessed food the way it occurs in nature remains a tried and true way to good health.

It is interesting to note that the reasons we die today are very different than the reasons we died 100 years ago. In the 1900’s, death was frequently a result of a communicable disease such as tuberculosis or the flu. Today, degenerative diseases top the charts and include heart disease, cancer and stroke. Degeneration is the break down and death of cells caused by inadequate antioxidants and an over-supply of free radical or oxidized molecules. These free radicals damage our cells resulting in cell death and tissue damage (degeneration). They also speed the aging process causing age-related problems such as memory loss and wrinkles.
Now, think about the opposite word: regeneration. This suggests renewal, rebirth and the making of new cells. When our body obtains an adequate supply of antioxidants, preventing cell death and tissue damage, cells and tissues are able to multiply, repair, and function optimally. This means we retain good brain function and memory along with soft, elastic skin and good energy levels and a body free of disease. Our hopes of maintaining youth and good cognitive function rests in getting those essential fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds that are host to a multitude of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients which fight to destroy free radicals. Working to increase our intake of these essential choices along with quality protein and undamaged fats can result in a sharp mind and a high quality of life as we age.
Contributed by Nancy Mehlert

Do you remember your first day of school? For the first time, you marched into a classroom and you were expected to learn to operate and function along with other children in the classroom. You had to be able to get along well with others, be quiet, sit still, listen, and follow instructions while also functioning with some degree of independence to do your work. Just like kids go to school to be molded and shaped to bring out their best talents, when you eat, your food joins a classroom of other nutrients in the body that work synergistically together to generate energy and optimal functioning for your entire cellular make up. So what happens when you eat foods to which you are sensitive or allergic? Well, that food is the classroom clown or bully who constantly interrupts the smooth operation of the classroom. Less work gets done, fewer results are generated and the teacher is irritated and frustrated. Live well. Eat well. Part of a successful nutritional lifestyle is to know and avoid the foods that disrupt your body’s ability to achieve wellness. Get rid of the bully in the classroom.