Integrative Health Blog

5 Quick Breakfast Ideas for Back to School

Posted by on Mon, Aug 25, 2014

It’s that time already! Now that the lazy days of August are wrapping up, parents have already begun the hustle and bustle of shopping for back-to-school supplies and filling out school forms.  Now it is time for the morning routine of getting the kids ready for school.

Do your children want to run out of the house without having eaten a decent breakfast? 

That sets them up for fatigue, irritability, and poor concentration.  Breakfast is a must to kick start the brain, so skipping it should not be an option. Since most of us are pressed for time in the morning, here are 5 quick breakfast ideas to get you through the week:

1)  A breakfast smoothie.  It doesn’t get much quicker than blending fresh or frozen fruit with a good protein source.  The possibilities for a morning shake are endless.  Use a combination of berries with a banana.  Add in fortified almond or coconut milk for healthy fat and calcium.  For added protein, use almond butter, a vegan protein powder or tofu (non-GMO please).    

2)  Old fashioned oatmeal with fresh fruit and nuts.  This oatmeal (slow cooked, not instant) breakfast is high in fiber, and very filling. You get protein from the oats and the nuts.  And the added fruit gives an extra boost of vitamins and minerals.

3)  An omelette loaded with vegetables.  The eggs provide protein, and also are a good source of the brain-boosting nutrient choline.  Add as many vegetables and color as your child will go for to give a boost of phytonutrients.

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Tags: children's health, pediatrics

Depression: It's Probably Not What You Think It Is.

Posted by on Tue, Aug 19, 2014

I recently had a brake problem in my car, and the diagnosis I made was completely different from the one my mechanic made.  My diagnosis was descriptive, “the brakes squeak and the car pulls to the left,” I said to my mechanic.  The diagnosis he made was that the rotors and brake pads were worn down. 

My diagnosis, like the ones often given to patients who suffer from psychiatric disorders, was descriptive of symptoms.  The other meaning of the word diagnosis is to define the cause.  That’s what depression really is; definitive, testable, modifiable causes.  The causes can be immunological (e.g., gluten sensitivity), infectious (e.g., Candida or Lyme), allergic (e.g., pollen), toxic (e.g., mercury), metabolic (e.g., hypoglycemia), psycho emotional (e.g., irrational thinking, or unfinished emotional trauma (PTSD) and/or genetic issues (e.g., methylation problems). 

Here is a short list of 21 other causes of depression:

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Tags: depression, holistic approach, Dr. Gant

Carbs, Belly Fat and Processed Foods: A Link to Diabetes?

Posted by on Mon, Aug 18, 2014

In my last blog, “ Is Low Carb for Everyone?”, I spoke about low carb diets and why I believe that everyone can benefit from reducing the amount of carbohydrates in their diet.

As a recap, I said that from my unofficial research, it seems as though Americans eating the Standard American Diet take in anywhere from 250-400+ grams of carbs/day which would be roughly 50% or more of the total food intake/day.

The SAD Diet

The SAD, or standard American diet, is full of flour products like bread, sweets, cookies and pasta, sugar from low fat processed foods and beverages, and starchy grains and vegetables like rice and potatoes - all of which are carbohydrates.

Beware of the Grocery Stores

The food industry, in their quest for sales, finds the “bliss point” in those chips, cookies and ice cream which keeps us coming back for more. In his book, “Salt, Sugar, Fat -How the Food Giants Hooked Us”, Michael Moss writes that we should "think of the grocery store as a battlefield, dotted with landmines itching to go off."

Those “landmines” contribute to the high levels of obesity and chronic disease we see in this country.

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Tags: belly fat, pre-diabetes, blood sugar

Holistic Dentistry: 5 Tips to Avoid Acid Erosion of Your Teeth

Posted by on Mon, Aug 11, 2014

Laurie DeRosa RDH

Having a diet that is highly acidic can be detrimental to your teeth and consuming acidic foods and drinks throughout the day makes the problem worse .  Erosion of the teeth is a type of decay that occurs when the tooth structure is lost due to chemical dissolution by acids.  Erosion will start in the enamel, which is the outer layer of the tooth, but can spread to the dentin underneath if left unchecked.

To review, in one of my previous blogs, Understanding pH and Why Alkalinity is Important to Health,   I talked about pH and how it is important to have a neutral pH in the mouth for most of the day.  A saliva pH of 7.0-7.5 is healthy.  Below 7.0 and your mouth becomes acidic and the more time during the day that your mouth is in an acidic state the higher the incidence of erosion.  If you have never tested your saliva I highly recommend that you purchase ph strips from your local health food store and periodically test your saliva.

Acidic foods and drinks are the most common cause of erosion.  Anything with a pH below  5.7 will begin the process of erosion.  The most common chronic disease of children between the ages of five-seventeen is dental erosion.  In the case of young children it is usually due to fruit juices, while with teenagers it is from sports drinks and soda.  It is the citric acid and phosphoric acid in juice and soda that causes erosion.  Other acids that can be erosive are chlorinated swimming pool water and regurgitation of gastric acids.

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Tags: holistic dentistry

Is Low Carb for Everyone?

Posted by on Mon, Aug 04, 2014

Buzzwords change over the years, don’t they?

In the 80’s it was “low fat” and “no fat” and 6 servings of carbs per day!!

But today the buzzword in nutrition seems to be “low carb”.

 


What does low carb mean exactly and why should we pay attention?

In the United States, our government has revised the nutritional guidelines 5 times since WWII.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_USDA_nutrition_guides

Most of us grew up learning about the 4 food groups : meat, dairy, fruits/ vegetables and starches. Your plate was supposed to have food from each group to create a balanced meal.

In the 1970’s we were told to ditch butter, eggs and cheese because they were harmful and that margarine, egg substitutes and low fat dairy were needed to prevent heart disease. Type II diabetes and obesity rates have skyrocketed since then as people have replaced fats with processed carbohydrates which contain boat loads of refined sugar. And…..heart disease is still the #1 cause of death in the U.S. So, you could say that we’re sicker now than we were before.

How times have changed

Last month, Time magazine’s cover story said “Eat Butter” with the tagline :

“Scientists labeled fat the enemy. Why they were wrong.

Mainstream publications are slowly/finally giving copy to these facts:

1. To the body a whole wheat bagel and a bag of M&M’s are the same — sugar

2. Sugar causes inflammation in the body.

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Tags: carbohydrates, pre-diabetes, blood sugar