News and ideas worth your attention.

7 Ways to Let Go of Artificial Sweeteners — and Why You Must!

Millions of people who are hooked on the sweet stuff often turn to non-sugar, ‘non-nutritive’ artificial sweeteners to enable them to have their cake and eat it too, so to speak. Not a wise move. In fact, most, if not all, of the chemical sweeteners out there are as just as rotten for your body as sugar, only in different ways. Swapping one bad habit (sugar) for another (fake stuff) can make cravings worse, mess with your microbiome and even damage your brain. Now, that’s a lousy trade-off! In short, nobody should be using artificial sweeteners and I encourage you to redline them (and sugar, too) without delay.

A Simple 3-Month Muscle-Building Plan

Truth be told, just about everyone’s fitness slipped a bit as we all tried to muddle through. Granted, though we aren’t totally out of the woods just yet, now that the ground feels less shaky, it’s time to find our footing and start moving forward once again. In other words, it’s time to pull ourselves – and our fitness acts – back together. Here’s your slow and steady muscle-building roadmap

Why Genetic Testing is About Much More Than Just Your Ancestry

Here are some reasons why health and wellness genetic testing is a powerful tool that provides insights into how your unique body functions.

4 Excellent Oils to Embrace – and 7 to Kick to the Curb

For years, I’ve encouraged my patients to cook at home as often as possible so you’re in charge of your healthy eating, the ingredients and most importantly, their quality. Even if you’re not Top Chef material, when you stick to fresh, whole, unprocessed, organic and farmers’ market offerings, it’s hard to go wrong. Unless that is, you’re cooking with the wrong oils. They can damage your health just as the right ones can enhance it, so it’s essential to select the right oil for the job.

10 Natural Ways to Tame Autumnal Allergies

To breathe easier and more naturally this fall – minus the fall-out from airborne ragweed and mold spores – opt for a healthier, holistic approach that combines simple nutritional and lifestyle upgrades. To get your program started before the leaves start to fall, try a few of my autumnal allergy-fighting tips to help you embrace the season with a clearer head – and a lot less sneezing.

If IBS Has Got You Down – an Imbalanced Microbiome May Be the (Very Fixable) Culprit

When it comes to gut troubles that make you feel especially lousy, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) ranks pretty high on the list. IBS is basically a vague catchall phrase that offers no insight into what’s actually causing the symptoms. The struggle, however, is very real – think abdominal pain, cramps, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, etc. So, what lies beneath all this gut misery, that afflicts roughly 25 - 45 million people in the US alone? In my three-plus decades of experience, I’ve found that one of the most common culprits is an imbalanced microbiome.

How to Know if You Have Hashimoto’s Disease

Allowing Hashimoto’s to run unchecked creates more inflammation in the body. This exacerbates symptoms. It also increases your chances of developing a second or third autoimmune condition.

8 Ways to Rebuild Your Muscle Mass – Despite the Pandemic Pause

Chances are, over the past 18 pandemic months, your muscular fitness and mass may have slipped a bit. Unfortunately, all that muscular down time is associated with increased cancer risk, depression, lower cognitive ability, prediabetic blood sugar levels (even if you’re at a healthy weight), sleep disruption and a host of other issues. In short, all the makings of a physiological hot mess – so it’s time to flip the script. With gyms open again, outdoor fitness classes in every park and plenty of virtual classes or in-home classes to tune into, there are more muscle-building options than ever – which makes now a good time to start building your muscles back to pre-pandemic levels. Here’s how to get back in the game.

6 Ways to Drink the Cleanest Water Possible

When it comes to water quality, few of us truly know much beyond what the bottlers and/or local government officials may claim, and we all know how that worked out in Flint, Michigan. So, the most sensible and health-protective approach is to take precautions, minimize your toxin exposure and focus on getting the purest water you can. How to reduce the amount of health-undermining effluvia that lurks in the average cup of tap? Here are a few ideas on how to clean up your water act.

Feel Good Now! 6 Tips for a Happy, Healthy Thyroid

Every day, your thyroid is speaking to you, but if you don’t speak the language, you’ll be hard-pressed to understand what’s going on with it, much less how to keep it healthy. Why does your thyroid matter? Well, for starters, it controls the way your body uses energy, helping to regulate your metabolism and governing your responsiveness to other hormones. It’s the great balancer, working 24/7 to help keep you on a hormonal even keel. So, when it’s not functioning optimally, neither will you. You’ll feel sluggish, even exhausted and you may start piling on the pounds while your doc says your thyroid levels are ‘normal.’ Trouble is, thyroid levels that appear ‘normal’ on paper, in real life may be way too low (or too high) for your particular anatomy.

9 Ways to Bring More Happiness Into Your Life

Though you may never have thought of happiness as something you could work on, take my word for it -- never has finding ways to cultivate happiness been more important. That’s not to say you should focus on happiness to the exclusion of all else, get stuck in the unrealistic, feelings-minimizing ‘stay positive’ mantra when things are going to hell, or toss your meds into the sea. What it does mean is that you can do a lot to buoy mental and physical health simply by applying a few happiness-boosting techniques to your repertoire. Even if you weren’t born with an innate sense of happiness, it’s a learnable skill to start practicing today.

7 Ways to Shop Like a Chef for Optimal Health

As I often say, the difference between people who eat well every day and those who don’t, is that one group makes shopping a nonnegotiable part of their routine. In other words, your food matters, so grab a cart or tote, and when you shop, be it at the farmers’ market or the supermarket, put your chef’s hat on. The idea is to cook what you buy with care. Even if you’re not an amazing cook, don’t race through the market like your cart’s on fire. Take your time – approach food shopping as a kind of mindfulness exercise rather than a chore.

6 Ways to Eat and Enjoy More Fats – and Ditch Low, No and Faux Fat – for Good!

If your diet is clean, lean and mean, well, good for you – to a point. But if it’s also this side of fat-free then I urge you to please fatten up your diet! Contrary to what your elders may have told you – and what the medical establishment has been espousing for the past 50 years or so – eating a diet full of low-fat processed Frankenfoods as a fat workaround, is not the ticket to health.

9 Ways to Tame Back-to-School and Back-to-Office Stress in Pandemic Times

As summer winds down and the pandemic grinds on, safe to say, many of us are heading into the fall with a sense of unease about what lies ahead. Getting a handle on how to move forward in the midst of constantly changing circumstances is something that just about everyone is struggling with right now. Vaccination, masking up and following CDC guidelines are essential. But after that, what? Despite pandemic fatigue, you simply must take good care of yourself and your loved ones and be as safe, physically healthy and mentally well as possible as we push through the next phase of the pandemic, whatever that turns out to be. No backsliding.

20 No-Brainer, Do-Every-Day Tips for Maximum Immunity Against COVID-19 and the Delta Variant

As much as we were all hoping to have COVID-19 on the run by now, it is still very much with us, with the Delta variant currently taking center stage. As the virus grinds on, continuing to follow CDC guidance and local mandates, getting the shot, masking, hand-washing and social distancing are all a big part of the ongoing battle. What else can you do to keep this unprecedented menace at bay? Do everything possible to support your immunity and remember, you’ve got a tremendous amount of control over it.

7 Ways Olives Can Help Keep You Healthy, Young and Energetic

Got olives? If not, I encourage you to start weaving these versatile, ancient fruits into your repertoire.

9 Ways to Stay Well on Your Summer Travels, Flying Adventures and Road Trips

How to avoid travel ills no matter where you roam? Think immunity, as in keeping your body – and your gut – fortified so it’s less susceptible to bugs – and better equipped to fight them off should one try to slow you down. A compromised or unbalanced gut sets you up for vacation-disrupting ills like indigestion, bloating, diarrhea, constipation – none of which you want to be dealing with while you’re trying to unwind and enjoy yourself.

How ‘Bathing’ and Grounding Yourself in Nature Heals and Protects Body, Mind and Spirit

The pandemic has served up many lessons, but one of the most positive ones has been a renewed appreciation for the great outdoors, even among those didn’t care much about it before – and I encourage everyone to carry the habit forward long after summer has set. Time spent in the outdoors and connecting with the Earth supports the health of your body, mind, and spirit, just like good sleep, wholesome foods and regular movement. Think of your time in nature as a wellness practice, an essential part of your self-care regimen, so don’t miss a dose.

Safe, Not Sorry: 5 Health-Saving Reasons Why You Need to Embrace the Precautionary Principle and Ditch GMOs

When it comes to our health, regulation usually lags behind common sense. How long did it take us to label cigarettes dangerous? To require seatbelts in cars? To squash nasty stuff like trans fats? It’s astonishing to think about what wasn’t on our society’s precautionary radar as recently as just a decade or two ago.

Become a Chocolate Connoisseur – 9 Ways to Do it Right

Chocolate is one treat that I have few qualms prescribing. When done right, high-quality dark chocolate is akin to a bittersweet multivitamin, capable of reducing oxidative stress (a root cause of illness and aging), countering inflammation, lowering blood pressure, boosting mental focus and cognitive longevity. Score! The secret of this stuff the ancient Mesoamericans called ‘food of the gods’ is its key nutrient-rich ingredient, cacao.

Effortlessly Upgrade Summertime Health with 7 Tasty Herbal Teas

Everyone loves a good health hack and one of my favorites is tea. While black, green, white and red teas have numerous benefits and are great ways to start the day, herbal teas have loads of pluses too, and no caffeine, so they won’t keep you up at night, no matter when you imbibe. Teas under the herbal umbrella -- made from flowers, dried fruits, spices and herbs -- are rich in antioxidant polyphenols which can help reduce the risk for chronic disease. We’re all for that.

8 Timely Tips to Stay Healthy in Summer’s Heat

Go easy on yourself when summer temperatures climb and the heat rolls in. Wear light-colored clothes, hats and sunglasses and drink plenty of liquids. What else can we do to avoid temperature-related ills? Check out my timely tips to help get you through the heat to come.

9 Essential Ways to Emerge from the COVID Cave – and into Post Pandemic Life

Who Owns Your Healthy Food?

Here are the five Big Food conglomerates that own some of your favorite "natural" or organic brands.