high/low stomach acid

Stom­ach acid is anoth­er lengthy top­ic.  Holis­tic Nutri­tion Schools talk about stom­ach acid quite a lot as they are prepar­ing prac­ti­tion­ers for the large num­ber of clients who are on GERD med­ica­tion used to reduce stom­ach acid.  I have met sev­er­al clients on stom­ach acid low­er­ing meds.  One of the chal­lenges is that typ­i­cal high stom­ach acid symp­toms like burning/heartburn sen­sa­tions can also mean low stom­ach acid.  Once you have med­ical­ly ruled out the pres­ence of H. Pylori bac­te­ria respon­si­ble for ulcers and/or struc­tur­al issues, you have many options available.

As time goes by, and years of processed food eat­ing have passed, stom­ach acid can become very slug­gish espe­cial­ly if there has been a lack of whole food in the [Con­tin­ue read­ing…]

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mood and food

This is one of the most pop­u­lar ques­tions a nutri­tion­ist is asked.  How can i improve my mood?   This top­ic is vast and i always stress that dis­ci­pli­nary prac­tices like med­i­ta­tion and deep breath­ing exer­cis­es or phys­i­cal move­ment exer­cis­es like Tai Chi are excel­lent for calm­ing the mind and enhanc­ing mood.  Even 10 min­utes spent in a guid­ed med­i­ta­tion in the morn­ing which you can select from the inter­net keeps your mood ele­vat­ed for most of the day.  When it comes to food, it gets com­pli­cat­ed.  All foods which enhance brain func­tion like fish oils usu­al­ly help.  B12 or a Multi‑B sup­ple­ment brings relief to most peo­ple.  They feel calmer and sharp­er at the same time.  Some peo­ple do not [Con­tin­ue read­ing…]

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vegan rotini pasta in a rosé sauce

I made this recipe for a demo class when I attend­ed IHN; I mod­i­fied a clas­sic-type dish and made it into a veg­an dish. It was a big hit even amongst all the non-veg­­ans! I hope you will enjoy it too.

 INGREDIENTS:

450 gram bag of Kamut Pas­ta (you’ll get brown­ie points for nutri­tion­al pas­ta choice)
1 block silken tofu, soft
3 T. olive oil
1 tsp. chilli pep­per flakes
1 pkg. 8 oz. veg­an cream cheese
5 very ripe plum toma­toes, chopped
Fresh basil, chopped, lots
5 cloves gar­lic, minced
1 tsp. of salt for sauce
Palm full of salt for boil­ing pas­ta water

DIRECTIONS:

Put large pot of boil­ing water on to boil and throw in palm full of salt
Cook pas­ta accord­ing to direc­tions. Do not over cook
 Heat olive oil to medi­um and add gar­lic, basil, and chilli [Con­tin­ue read­ing…]

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menu ideas

Clients, friends, and fam­i­ly are always ask­ing me for real­ly inter­est­ing food menu ideas and I spend a lot of time com­ing up with my own recipes.  I also love 2 recipe books which I use a great deal and not just for the recipes but also for all the prep and lifestyle tips that both of these 2 cook­books offer.  Most peo­ple I rec­om­mend these 2 books to have loved how infor­ma­tive they are.  One is writ­ten and beau­ti­ful­ly illus­trat­ed by one of my won­der­ful past teach­ers, Eva Caba­ca.  It is a veg­an cook­book called Earth­ly & Divine and whether you are a veg­an or not this book will show you how to expand your menu ideas.  I [Con­tin­ue read­ing…]

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My IBS Story

I was offi­cial­ly diag­nosed with IBS (irri­ta­ble bow­el syn­drome) in 1995 although I prob­a­bly had this con­di­tion since child­hood. IBS is usu­al­ly diag­nosed by process of elim­i­na­tion after oth­er bow­el dis­eases which show up with dis­tinct inflam­ma­to­ry mark­ers like Crohn’s or Col­i­tis have been inves­ti­gat­ed first. Many IBS suf­fer­ers often go undi­ag­nosed for some time, even years, until their fam­i­ly doc­tor or a spe­cial­ist final­ly arrives at the IBS con­clu­sion. Many suf­fer­ers are told that they are sim­ply lac­tose intol­er­ant or have food sen­si­tiv­i­ties which are only a small part of the pic­ture. The ner­vous sys­tem and life/nutritional habits need to be investigated.

Chal­leng­ing stress­ful events can often lead to this IBS con­di­tion even though it may seem to the indi­vid­ual [Con­tin­ue read­ing…]

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