I hear it all the time. “I eat healthy. I exercise every day. I don’t understand why I can’t lose this extra weight.” It typically looks the same– a small (or large) inner tube around the midsection, a couple extra chins and arms that should be lean and muscular, but aren’t. It doesn’t make sense to most people, but it does to me.

Americans have (literally) grown accustomed to a few little extras in our daily intake. Rather than feeling satisfied with a few nutrient dense meals that meet our bodily and energy requirements, we feel entitled to some special rewards for when we are good, have had a hard day, give a stellar presentation or practice patience with the kiddos. Then we reward the kids with ‘treats’ when they win soccer games or get good grades. It’s cool. It’s normal. But it also makes us fat.

When I use the word “fat,” I mean it. Doctors, friends and family dance around it,  but fat is what is compromising

Adipose Tissue, Stained

and killing Americans off one at a time. Fat is stored adipose tissue in various layers of the body, some necessary, some  harmful and some just undesirable. Excess fat is hormonally active, now considered to be a functioning endocrine organ, viable in bodily workings and breakdown. This means that our fat cells are not just for unsightly storage anymore. They’re alive.

Eating food that has fat (butter, meat, avocados) doesn’t make you fat. It’s more complicated than that. When you ingest olives, walnuts or whipped cream it does not “go to your butt.” Sugar (carbohydrates) and refined/processed grains such as white flour (also carbohydrates) are greater culprits in fat storage than is dietary fat. In addition, the quality of all the foods you eat (carbohydrates, fats and protein) has an impact on fat production and storage.

On the flip-side, eating “fat free” food in order to avoid fat storage is an absolute farce. The intake of these food-like substances do not prevent you from storing fat. On the contrary, when the body is forced to deal with these substances, a common consequence is fat storage, often due to the high level of sugar, fake sugar, preservatives and other ingredients the digestive system and liver are unable to recognize. When the body does not recognize a food item, find it useful for construction/energy or have the ability to break it down for excretion, it must store it somewhere.

5 Foods That Make Us Fat:

- The Morning Bagel & Cream Cheese. This seems healthy because it’s not a donut– but it has absolutely zero nutritional value and is made out of entirely refined carbs aka, sugar. So guess what? It’s a donut.

- The Lunchtime Sandwich Bread or Hamburger Bun. This is a repeat of the bagel issue. It’s not only empty calories, offering no nutritional value, it’s adding sugar (glucose) to your blood stream which increases your insulin which can contribute to insulin resistance and belly fat.

- The Afternoon Latte and Pastry “Treat”. An insane fat-making duo. Because your blood sugar is crashing in the afternoon and you’re getting tired and irritable because you ate lettuce on a giant white hoagie with fat free chips for lunch, you go for what’s easy and tasty– a 20 ounce “fat free” latte with four shots of espresso, sugar free vanilla syrup and maybe a touch of whipped cream, because the milk was fat free, after all. And a pumpkin spice scone. This is a fat time bomb and the trip-wire is the sugar free syrup.

- The Evening Beer(s). Beer is delicious. It is also grain (carbohydrate) based alcohol (sugar) that packs more calories per punch than either carbs or protein. If you drink beer or wine or tequila or whiskey or vodka every single night of the week then it’s probably either making you fat or it’s going to. Unless you don’t eat because of it. That’s an entirely different problem and you should call AA. Now.

- Oreos. Or Whatever Your Night-Time Coookie Is. Same story, different hour. Because your blood sugar has been going up and down all day from the deprivation/sugar gluttony rollercoaster, your liable to crash again at night a couple hours after your beer. To get the sugar back up, you head to the cabinet for the cookies and milk. I’ve eaten roughly a square mile of Oreos in my life. I get it.

5 Things to Try Instead:

- Eggy Scramble Bowl. Make it to go. Throw in 2-3 scrambled eggs, 1/4 cup brown rice, some black beans, sauteed onions/red pepper/spinach, salsa and 1/2 an avocado. Top with cilantro and nutritional yeast. Prepare some of this the night before or wake up 15 minutes early so you don’t flip out.

- Bigger than Life Salad. Forget the bread. Put whatever you put in your sandwich on a massive amount of greens– romaine lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale. Add radishes, shredded carrot, grape tomatoes, kalamata olives, pears, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and roasted chicken or salmon. Top with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, sea salt and cracked pepper. Take your time and try to taste what you’re eating.

- 3 O’Clock Snack. Don’t skip it! Just skip your empty 500 calorie and ridiculously bread-butt scone. If you are not ready to lose the caffeine (that’s a whole other discussion), go for an Americano or coffee, like a real man/woman. If you’re ready to truly improve your health, try filtered water, coconut water, kombucha or green tea. Have apples and almond butter, blueberries and Brazil nuts or red peppers and beef jerky for a snack. Try it for more than one day, you instant gratification freak.

Green Tea from healthtory.com

- Less Beer, Less Often. Go down to every other night, then twice a week and after a few months you will probably see a difference in your body. Plus, if you have to drink every night, there may be a problem.

- Dark Chocolate or Chia Seed Pudding. Instead of cookies, a refined flour-refined sugar disaster, eat a nutrient dense dessert within 30 minutes of finishing dinner. If you need a late night stack, go for leftover chicken or nuts.

My final word is choice. You might not get to choose what genes you received or exactly what your body looks like, but you can choose what you eat or refuse to eat every day. And those choices do translate, in part, to how you feel, how you look and what the quality of your health is. You are not held victim to the bagels your co-worker brought! You don’t have to go to Subway for lunch. You don’t have to get the venti latte just because you have for the past 10 years. You can make different choices today.

from The Simpsons

I’ve been watching a lot of food documentaries lately– Food Matters; Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead; The Beautiful Truth. The take-aways from these shows regarding the food industry, chronic disease and how to promote health in an otherwise ill country, abound.

One principle that spans all three documentaries is that of the “plant-based diet.” Some featured presenters even go sofar as to promote all raw diets or all fresh fruit and vegetable juice diets in order to come from a place of chronic disease back to health. Crazy? Maybe not.

I’m an omnivore, though, so what do I do with the oh-so-convincing “plant-based diet” theories put forth? The premise is simple: We are deficient and malnourished because of our overly-processed and refined fast-food diets. Therefore our bodies do not have the raw materials they require in order to keep running smoothly, so they become diseased, not having the raw materials needed to heal. When we remove that diet and replace it with fresh, living plant-based, whole foods, then we supply the body with all it needs to heal itself. We bring it from a state of mal-nourishment to nourishment, from dis-ease to ease. Through fruits and vegetables we receive the vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and cofactors we need to heal.

Do I need to be a vegetarian, a raw foodist or a juicer to implement the healing through plants principle? No. What I need to do is eat clean, whole foods and increase my fresh plant intake…vastly.

I eat way more veggies and fruits than the common American. I’m not bragging; it’s just statistical truth. In a Johns Hopkins study of fruit and vegetable intake of thousands of Americans over 15 years, only 11% of people were shown to get their 2 servings of fruit and 3 servings of vegetables per day– and this allowed for french fries. The Center for Disease Control addresses the deficiency. I think I eat a lot of fruits and veggies, but it turns out I need to eat way more if my body is going to be able to heal itself.

But I eat meeeeaaat! So what do I do? Since I really do believe in this principle, the answer is easy. Eat way more vegetables. Eat some more fruit, too. It’s probably not a bad idea to replace at least some of my many tortilla chips with a few veggies…

Two easy ways to cram more veggies and fruits into your daily eating are with warm soups and cold smoothies:

Indian Yellow Pea Soupby Kris Norbraten-DuVernay

1 1/2 cups dry yellow split peas, soaked overnight

1-2 Tbsp olive oil, ghee or coconut oil

1 large onion (red or yellow), diced

6 whole carrots (skin on if organic), 4 diced, 2 sliced

3 large garlic cloves, finely diced

3 stalks celery including leafy tops, diced

3 cups water

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock or broth

1 tsp coriander, 1 1/2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp black pepper + 1 tsp celtic sea salt

organic raw tomatoes and raw red peppers, diced, for topping

1/4 cup fresh parsley or cilantro, finely chopped, for garnish

Drain and rinse soaked peas. Place in large pot or stock pot and cover with water. Bring to boil and simmer, mostly covered, for an hour to and hour and a half. // Thirty minutes into boiling, heat oil over low-medium heat and add onion, garlic and diced (not sliced) carrots. Saute until soft and remove from heat. // When peas are done, drain water and add peas back to pot. Add stock/broth and sauteed veggies. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. // After 30 minutes, add sliced carrots, celery and spices. Simmer another 20-30 minutes or until carrots are done.

Quinoa Fritters adapted from Martha Stewart

Quinoa

1 cup dried quinoa, soaked overnight, then rinsed

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil + 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, ghee or butter

2 green onions, thinly sliced

2 garlic clove, minced

1 3/4 cups filtered water

coarse sea salt + cracked black pepper to taste

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

1/2 cup shredded cheese of choice (use Daiya ‘cheese’ if you are dairy free)

Heat 2 tsp olive oil over low-medium heat. Add rinsed quinoa and cook for 2-5 minutes, till almost totally dry. // Add green onion, garlic and water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Uncover and cook 5 minutes longer or till the water is gone and the quinoa is soft. // Transfer mixture to a large bowl and cool for 10 minutes. Add the egg + yolk, cheese, salt and pepper and stir till combined. // In a large skillet (I like using an iron skillet), heat 2 Tbsp olive oil, ghee or butter over medium heat. Using a large spoon, drop large blobs of mixture onto the skillet and flatten with a spatula. // Cook till golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. // Serve with above soup.

Eat Your Vegetables Smoothie by Kris Norbraten-DuVernay

1/4 cup chia seeds, soaked in rice, almond or coconut milk overnight (can be refrigerated in glass bowl for 2 weeks). Use 2 Tbsp of this mixture for your smoothie.

Chia Seeds

1 carrot, roughly chopped

1 handfull baby spinach

1 large kale leaf, stem removed and chopped

3/4 frozen banana

1/2 apple, skin on

1/4 cup frozen blueberries

1/4 cup frozen cranberries

1 Tbsp flax meal

1 Tbsp greens powder (I like Health Force Vitamineral Green)

protein powder, optional

1/2 cup “Just Cranberry”, “Just Tart Cherry” or “Just Pomegranate”  juice

filtered water

Add everything to blender or Vitamix. Use only 1-2 Tbsp of the chia seed mixture. Blend until smooth, adding water until it reaches the consistency you like. Use as much organic produce as you can, especially focusing on the spinach and kale.

By the end of all this documentary-watching, I don’t feel so much enlightened as I do confronted with the fact that it’s vegetables and fruits, not procedures and pharmaceuticals, that are going to save our health. It is the body’s systems, not drugs, that heal the body. We simply need the right materials to get the job done.

Instead of a plant-based (meaning vegetarian) diet, I’m on board with a plant-centric eating lifestyle that is aware and individualized (taking protein and blood sugar balance into account, but that’s another story). This means I can have my little roast chicken (in its right proportion) and eat tons of leafy greens and blueberries too.

Chow, people.

You might have heard of her…Paula Deen (1947-?), a Savannah, Georgia native, is the bright-eyed Southern-cooking, Southern-speaking “lady” of the Food Network. Along with her cooking show, she endorses Smithfield Foods Inc. (“the world’s largest pork producer and processor”) and has an extensive website complete with a million recipes. Not enough on the proverbial plate, Paula? Now she is the face of Victoza (Liraglutide), a diabetes drug by the Danish company Novo Nordisk.

With all the commentaries flying– and because I so wanted Paula to be the antithesis of everything I believe in as a nutrition consultant, educator and writer– I decided to investigate.

It turns out she is probably not the spawn of Satan. And she probably isn’t even trying to deliberately lead millions of overweight, diabetic or on-the-verge-of-diabetes Americans down a pied piper path into an ocean of glucose where they will surely die painful, miserable, overweight deaths. She’s probably just trying to keep cooking stuff she likes to eat, keep her show rolling, please a ba-zillion people and make a wod of cash on the side from a European drug company. What could be more American than that?

I’m not impressed though. We’re in an age of Deen-abetes. Many people in this disease-ridden era would rather pop pills or stick themselves with syringes than change their ways. The U.S. food industry, pharma industry and a few shady government agencies back up not a health care system where people get well, but a frightening machine that keeps people ill, for that’s where the big bucks reside. We should have graduated into age of disease prevention and reversal by now. Knowledge, wellness providers and resources are here but clean food and simple exercise are no good for a money-making ‘machine’. It’s almost as though we have grown too sick, fat and slow to even care. (I smell a conspiracy, do you?)

Is Paula right or wrong? Should she be bashed or applauded? With countless watchers, likely more concerned about flavor than fasting blood sugar, it seems like Paula has a venue to help Americans make a major shift. It’s possible that she is the great Southern shepherdess of a billion dumbfounded sheep– and those sheep might just do anything she says– from sticking Velveeta into puff pastry and deep frying it, to spending $500/month on Victoza to incorporating leafy greens into daily meals. When Victoza is paying bags of money, and puff pastry tastes soooo good,  leafy greens simply don’t stand a chance.

While her show and website are still thriving, Deen has turned to her two sons, Jamie and Bobby, to take up her cooking torch with the “Not My Mama’s Meals” campaign. It features alternatives to the richer, fattier recipes seen on “Paula’s Home Cooking.” Paula also has a link on her website leading you to a joint effort with Novo Nordisk called “Diabetes in a New Light,” promoting eating better, exercise, reducing stress, self care and recipes altered from their original state. Paula is having some of her decadent cake and eating her lighter diabetes cake too. And guess what? She has every right to eat as much cake as her belly, blood sugar and Victoza can handle.

But let’s face it, Paula Deen is not the problem with America’s diabetes epidemic. Paula can’t make you do or eat anything. Neither can the best nutritionist, dietitian or doctor in the world. At the end of the day, every person has some choice and responsibility about what he or she does and eats. The more information and education there is about what causes problems (like obesity, diabetes and heart disease) in the first place, the better. The more voluntary ignorance-is-bliss mentality from Americans about chronic, preventable conditions, the worse.

I stand by my mantra that you get to take your health into your own hands. With a little education, your wellness and well-being are in your realm of control. These are things we not only enjoy but demand as Americans in the 21st century– control, independence and choice. If you do not want to fall ‘victim’ to disease, then think. Own your decisions, your food, your drugs, your recipes, your body, your mind, your meals and your health. On Paula’s website alone, you can choose between a fresh endive, watercress, apple, goat cheese and walnut salad and a processed hot-dog and pre-made puff pastry disaster.

The more you know, the more able you are to be in control and, “If you’re not in control, are you sure that those in control are looking out for your best interests?”

Chow.

Resources:

The Center For Disease Control website

The Huffington Post

The New York Times

www.pauladeen.com

www.thedeenbros.com

www.novonordisk.com

Ingredients, a documentary by Optic Nerve Productions; see www.ingredientsfilm.com

On this particular episode, Dr. Oz plays hosts to four other doctors, Dr. Mark Hyman of the Institute of Functional Medicine, Dr. Wendy Weiner (Ob/Gyn), Dr. David Perlmutter (Neurologist) and Dr. Susan Blum (Internal Medicine). Each of them get the spotlight for a few minutes and are asked what problems they see most in patients, how their techniques and assessments differ from a run-of-the-mill traditional Western M.D. and what route they tend to go first to help people feel better and stay well.

Every one of them talked about food as medicine.

Check it out here: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/dr-oz-s-disease-detectives-pt-1

Not therapy, not drugs, not supplements first. Food– salads, smoothies, nuts, coconut oil. These are M.D.s on national television with a billion people watching. They can talk about anything they want. What they are talking about is Swiss chard, sunflower seeds and tahini. They each believe in the body’s capacity to heal itself if it is given enough of the right nutrients and building blocks to do the job it already knows how to do.

I believe in this “Food First” model– so did Hippocrates when he said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” At a time when what we are doing– pumping ourselves full of pharmaceuticals, cutting body parts out, using bandaids for poor lifestyle– does not work, we might want to think about going back to what does work. Clean, nutrient-dense, substantial, well-sourced food.

This morning’s insight is that too often we go to bed hungry or having eaten too much sugar, so we wake up in the ‘middle of the night’ from a dip or a crash in glucose or blood sugar. This bottoming-out or deprivation of a substance that our body needs in order to run its basic processes provokes a mid-sleep panic– a stress response– and that panic jolts us from sleep. It’s our body’s way of saying, “Wake up, stupid. You need more fuel.” That’s what mine just did.

So, when you wake up with a rumbling belly, it’s not the only thing going on in your body. Cells  cry out; the brain struggles; stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol shoot up. You wake up thinking, “I need a snack,” but instead roll over and try to sleep. But you can’t. You toss and turn. You have to pee. Your brain starts going with what happened yesterday or with what you have to get done tomorrow. It feels like it’s all over.

You can prevent this just like I could have prevented this. You see, I ate a small, rather lame (even if healthy) dinner at about 6pm but stayed active and slightly stressed until I fell asleep around 10pm. This is too long to go without an extra portion of calories before heading off to dreamland– if I don’t want to be jolted from sleep by cortisolman. A small snack, centered around protein and some healthy fats without too much sugar would have done me well.

Later we can go into the long term repercussions of dosing yourself with cortisol and stress, whether in the middle of the night or day. It’s not pretty– check for other posts on metabolic syndrome (syndrome X) or type 2 diabetes if you’d like to read ahead.

Thanks for joining me at midnight. Hopefully I will not see you at this time again. Ever.

Then come the New Year’s resolutions, serious dedications to the newest diet plan and (usually) the frustration that follows. We have an ongoing drama with dieting. First we find food seductive and alluring– butter, chocolate, sugar, deep-fried whatever. Then we escape with food, or flagrantly indulge in it at every party. Then we realize the error of our ways and the shame drives us to penance. Hence, the deprivation diet. If we simply take away everything we indulged in, cut our calories, deprive ourselves, then our bodies will be happy again. Right?

Guess what? Fad diets don’t work. No matter how much drama you eek into them, no matter how many of them or how many times you try and even if you do succeed for a moment the weight comes back.

Here’s why.

If you calorie-restrict too much, skip meals, fail to eat enough fat and protein or replace too many meals with liquids, your body sounds the alert that it is not getting enough of what it needs to function properly. Theoretically, you would dip into the fat reserves in your thighs or belly, but in reality all you’ve done is freaked yourself out. Once under stress and deprived, the body switches from being a energy production facility to becoming a storage facility. Where once you utilized the materials you put into your mouth, the body will now stash them away, for fear that it will not be properly fed in the future.

The side effects of this are low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), increased cortisol (stress hormone), fat storage around the belly, poor mood, tiredness, fatigue, low energy, inability to exercise and the desire to eat your own arm.

Once the blood sugar is low from not eating enough, you have climbed on the blood sugar rollercoaster, where the blood sugar (glucose) drops terribly low during hunger, then shoots through the roof as soon as something is eaten. This is a prescription for carbohydrate cravings, insulin resistance, fat storage and weight gain.

So, how do you lose the cheese platter and week of martinis without going on a diet? Here’s a few concepts.

1. Realize that there is no magic pill or plan. You are an individual with your own history, eating, family, stressors, environment, body, mind and psyche. Some people can gain two pounds in the process of trying to lose weight, but drop two sizes, look leaner and gain muscle definition. Some people need a year to get the process going.

2. Not all calories are created equal. The “calories-in-calories-out” idea is still floating around out there. This says that if you want to lose weight simply ingest fewer calories that you expend in a given day. The problem with this is that it does not factor in quality of food, nutrients and cofactors for metabolic processes, endocrine and hormone innuendos and blood sugar issues.

3. Get off the rollercoaster. This means balancing your blood sugar and engaging your metabolism in a grown-up, meaningful relationship. When you starve, then binge on sugar/carbs/caffeine and repeat, you are not treating your body with respect. It’s time to be a big kid and be kind, thoughtful and loving to your body by eating real, regular meals complete with lean protein, healthful fats and lots of vegetables.

4. Eat real, good food. Creating a lifestyle of eating that is made up of bright colored fruits and vegetables, healthful fats, nuts and seeds, whole grains, well-sourced lean meat, poultry and fish and eggs (or as many of these as are tolerated) promotes health and healing because it provides the body with what it needs and helps the body eliminate what it does not.

5. Don’t eat fake, bad food. Slowly weeding out everything you can’t pronounce, was made in a lab, includes anything with a color-number combo, can sit on a shelf for longer than a month or that has more than roughly five ingredients is a good place to start. Read food labels and shop the outer perimeter of the grocery store rather than the center aisles.

Check out other posts about weight management, eating breakfast and diabetes for more information. The real plan behind dieting? Back away from the Special K, eat real food, get moving and be kind to yourself. Happy New Year!

My father, a smart, wise and funny man, is packing up his N.A.S.A. office at Johnson Space Center in Houston today. After 40+ years of working there, he will retire. His retirement and my graduation from Bauman College are simultaneous. As he completes his career as a N.A.S.A. engineer, I begin mine as a Nutrition Consultant.

There is a week or two where Dad and I are in-between, not quite done with what is behind us and excited but not quite solidified about what lies ahead. We each have confidence about past accomplishments and both seek to be meaningful in the future– me with nutrition and healing and him with, well, you’d have to ask him.

Living in the tension of the in-between is a skill I never learned well. It is a gray place of little accomplishment where I have no to-do lists to mark off, no appointments to keep, no classroom or office to sit in, no homework to complete and no grades to inform me how competent I am. Living in the tension of the in-between means that I cannot return to the past, but am not quite ready to enter the future. It is a time to be quiet, for just a moment.

This gray time is usually not acceptable in our culture. It requires saying, “I don’t know,” when someone asks you what you are going to do today. It requires re-learning how to take a walk, how to breathe, how to ask others how they are doing, how to sleep a little longer because you need the rest. The tension in-between results in little accomplishment, few completed projects and not much to say for yourself when someone asks you, “So, what do you have to say for yourself?” This is why we typically do not allow ourselves the time to live in the tension in-between, even if life asks it of us. Having nothing to say for yourself feels slightly uncomfortable at best and downright shameful at worst.

Why do it then? Why stick around in the gray tension of the in-between? What good is it? I’m not sure; only the time itself will tell. We allow it so little that we are not acquainted with its ways. My hunch is that it allows rest, familiarity with self, absorption of things previously learned, time to perceive one’s formerly neglected surroundings, getting one’s bearings so as to know what direction one is headed, taking stock of one’s proverbial pantry to figure out what is missing, re-learning how to breathe and gathering up the gumption needed for the road ahead. Hurtling head-long into the ‘next thing’ without experiencing this gray area and tension-loaded time is not necessarily wise.

This is where I am and this is where I am going to stay. Just for a little while.

Winter months bring: 1) Depleted Immunity, 2) Weight Management Issues and 3) Sad Mood and Anxiety resulting in daily stress, poor sleep, strained relationships, lowered job performance and depleted well-being. It’s not pretty.

The good news is that you can analyze this list and take your health into your own hands. Self-health, you equipping yourself with knowledge, education, information, ideas and tools– enables you to go out and make decisions that decrease disease and promote ease, health and well-being. You can facilitate a degree of prevention today no matter who you are, how much you weigh or how you feel. Choosing sleep, food, movement, sunlight, stress, breathing, relationships and work situations that are good for you, you can change both health and illness.

Instead of beating yourself over the head with the cheese log you just inhaled, consider the little things you can add to your everyday eating and lifestyle to improve your health.

Add astragalus and oregano oil to boost your immune system. These two herbal wonders are often-overlooked when cold season starts settling in. Unlike the more commonly used elderberry and echinacea, they can be used for prolonged periods. They achieve deep immunity and help fortify you to ward off infection before you become ill. Found in both tablets and tinctures (liquid).

Add protein to breakfast everyday to help with weight. Feeling sluggish, fat and getting weak and tired at 3pm are signs of dysglycemia– blood sugar that is too high or too low. Adding clean protein to your breakfast such as lox, organic eggs, chicken sausage or black beans rather than eating just Pop Tarts, Lucky Charms or an apple gets your metabolism going and your blood sugar balanced.

Add some action to improve your mood. That’s right– having safe, loving sex with a trusted partner as often as you can ignites the metabolism, works muscles you forgot about and triggers super-hormones not often experienced during a normal day. Oxytocin, the bonding hormone, is released; dopamine, a well-being, gimme-more or pleasure hormone, is overwhelmingly present; and several hormones that have the effect of satisfaction, stress release and even sleepiness. See “Your Brain on Sex” for way more details.

Add leafy greens + greens powder to increase nutrient reserves. Saute kale with your eggs and sausage for breakfast. Build a giant spinach and romaine salad (don’t forget the fat and protein!) for lunch. Have a greens smoothie (yes, even in the winter) with antioxidant rich berries and flax meal. Design your dinner with Swiss Chard, broccoli, Brussels sprouts or bok choy as the centerpiece and meat and potatoes as the side. Check out Health Force Super Foods Vitamineral Green, which includes greens from the land and water as well as digestive enzymes and probiotics.

Ok, so a supplement, some sausage, sex and a smoothie– all things you can easily add to your winter work-out to help take health back into your own hands.

Cheers– and Merry Christmas!

Instead of the refined carbohydrates pinwheels, processed cheese balls, barbequed fake meats and other ghosts of Christmases past, try something new. These three recipes use real, whole food, warm the body on cold winter nights and fill the belly so you don’t have to wipe out an entire plate of jelly rolls. So, in the spirit of Christmas sharing and cheer, here are three recipes you, your friends and your family will love.

Devils on Horseback aka Bacon Wrapped Dates

12 slices uncured bacon, nitrate and nitrite free

24 pitted dates, the bigger the better

24 raw or toasted pecan halves, optional

Preheat oven to 400. // Soak 24 toothpicks in a small bowl of water. // Slice bacon either in half long-ways or short-ways, depending on how large your dates are. If they are long, fat dates, cutting the bacon in half is easiest. If they are small you’ll have to do the harder work of starting at one tip and cutting the bacon in half length-wise. // Shove a pecan half into each date, if desired. If the dates are small, make a small slit to get the pecan in. // Wrap each date in a half piece of bacon and secure it with a soaked toothpick. Place on a cookie sheet (lined with foil, if you like). // Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, flip and bake 10 more or till bacon is bubbling and slightly crispy. If you like it very crispy, broil for the last minute or two. // Remove and serve warm or room temperature.

Try also prunes stuffed with macadamia nuts or just plain figs. These can also be served stuffed with goat cheese, but I leave it out. Haystack Mountain in Boulder makes a really nice one.

Moroccan Spiced Lamb Meatballs with Lemon Mint Yogurt Sauce
Adapted from Sunset Magazine

For the sauce combine and chill (forego if you are dairy sensitive; the meatballs speak for themselves):
1 1/2 cups whole fat (4%) Greek yogurt (look for high protein and low sugar)
Finely shredded zest of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh mint
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp minced garlic

For the meatballs:
2 Tbsp finely grated ginger
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 tsp curry powder + 2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp sea salt + 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 lb ground lamb
1/2 lb ground turkey
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

In a large bowl, combine ginger, garlic, curry, garam masala, salt and pepper. Add meats and gently combine with hands till spices are just evenly distributed. Do not overmix. // Gently roll meat into 1 1/2 inch balls and set on a rimmed baking pan. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and line another baking pan with paper towels.
// Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Add oil and swirl to coat. Brown meatballs in batches on all sides, turning as needed for about 10-12 minutes (medium rare). Transfer meatballs to towel lined pan. // Transfer meatballs to serving dish and serve with toothpicks and yogurt sauce.

Prosciutto Rolls with Arugula and Figs from www.epicurious.com

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

4 tsp grated lemon peel

12 thin slices prosciutto (not paper-thin)

6 ounces soft fresh goat cheese at room temperature, optional (I leave this out)

16 dried black Mission figs, quartered

4 large bunches arugula, stems trimmed

Whisk oil, lemon juice and peel in medium bowl to blend. Lay prosciutto on work surface, spacing slices 2 inches apart. Spread cheese evenly over prosciutto (optional). //  Arrange figs over cheese, dividing and spacing evenly. Drizzle lemon mixture over. Sprinkle with pepper. // Arrange 6 arugula leaves atop each prosciutto slice, alternating stems and tops and allowing tops to extend 1 inch over long sides of prosciutto. // Starting at 1 short end of each prosciutto slice, tightly roll up as for jelly roll. Cut rolls crosswise in half. // If you do not use cheese, use less sauce and secure each roll with a toothpick. //  Transfer to platter. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Cover with damp paper towels, then plastic; chill.)

Enjoy your partying and your eating this season. Taste fully and fill up on the real, whole, good stuff so you don’t end up binging on Pillsbury slice-n-bakes. Make your calories count– so they offer real fuel, real nutrients and so they work for you– promoting a healthy, natural weight, not the need to lose weight after the partying dies down and the New Year begins.

Cheers!

If you can’t shake your grinchy funk or have been diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder, welcome to a large pool of Americans who struggle with a mysterious calendar-induced condition. If you don’t feel like doing anything, getting out of bed, making a meal or calling a friend (all good ideas), here are 10 tools for addressing the winter blues.

1. Douse Yourself in Light. When you wake and want to pull the comforter over your head, flip on the light or throw open the curtains instead. Look into the light. Use the force. Getting light into your eyes. Try a winter light machine or broad spectrum bulbs in your lamps both at work and home to make up for lost UV rays from the sun. Sunlight gets your circadian rhythm on track, helping to manage cortisol (your stress and get-up-and-go hormone) and melatonin (a calm and sleep hormone).

2. Build Breakfast to Balance Blood Sugar. Unstable blood sugar, or glucose, makes for a crabby demeanor, a light head, weight gain and low energy. Beginning each day with a balanced meal of 20 grams protein, 2 Tbsp healthy fats, 2 servings vegetables and a side of plain Greek yogurt or berries is a great way to get on the right track for the entire day– and season.

3. Eat Plenty of Protein, Preferably Animal. A deficiency in clean protein (think wild caught fish/sardines, nuts/seeds, poultry, organic eggs, grass fed beef, buffalo, elk, legumes) can deplete your neurotransmitters and hormones causing your nervous and endocrine systems to run on empty. If you don’t have enough building blocks to make serotonin and GABA, poor sleep and depression are on your doorstep. Aim for 20 grams of clean protein at each meal and 10 at each snack, balanced with healthy fats and plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit.

4. Go Play Outside. Your mama said it in the summer when your were a kid and now it’s time for winter play. Take the kids, the dog, the snowshoes or the skis out– even if it takes every last inch of your will and energy. Even 15 minutes in the winter air and sun each day will help battle the blues. Take off your hat and let sunlight get into the top of your head. Sunlight into the pineal gland (a small gland in the brain or ‘third eye’) produces melatonin and modulates wake/sleep and seasonal patterns.

5. Raise Low Cholesterol. A total cholesterol number that is below 150 can exacerbate depression-like symptoms. Because a large part of the brain is comprised of cholesterol and conductivity of neurons and cell walls depends on it, a deprivation of this fat causes harm to basic brain processes and makes you feel a bit crazy. Increase omega-3 essential fatty acids in the form of a high quality fish oil supplement (EPA and DHA) such as Pharmax, New Chapter or Nordic Naturals up to 4000mg/day. Replace canola, sunflower and safflower cooking oils with coconut. If you are taking statins to lower high cholesterol, research ways to lower your cholesterol naturally so you can (under a doctor and nutritionist’s care) go off your meds.

6. Get More Dark Leafy Greens. The color green is soothing to the mind, eyes and soul– and is obviously missing in our environment in the winter months. Greens, or foliage, are rich in folate, a lack of which results in depression attributes. To make up for the loss, and stock your body with essential vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and enzymatic cofactors, ingest green rather than looking at it. Kale, Brussels sprouts, Swiss chard, bok choy, spinach, mustards and even romaine lettuce will sooth and nourish your body, mind and soul.

7. Don’t Shy Away From Supplements. Turning to this kind of bottle is not a sign of weakness, but of being proactive about your well-being. Vitamin D throughout the winter, a daily B Complex, increased folate (B9) in a reduced form, SAM-e and St. John’s Wort (not to be taken with SSRIs) are all shown to be useful with seasonal affective disorder. We are all different, however, have different nutrient store baselines from which to start and different diets to gather nutrients from. It’s best to meet with a professional (like a nutritionist or naturopathic doctor) to see what supplements and doses work best for you.

8. Just Do Something, Don’t Do Nothing. This is my frequently used personal motto. Doing nothing always has the same result. Doing something, anything–washing the cat, shoveling the walk, writing your grandma, putting on a new outfit or baking a better cookie introduces a new variable which results in a new end product. I really believe in this principle, even when it’s hard.

9. Soothe Rather Than Stimulate. Instead of 3 cups of coffee every day, try 1 + decaf or, better yet, green or herbal tea (as much as you like); instead of the 2 glasses of wine each night, gradually phase back to 1/2 glass or 1 every other night (ideally only once or twice a week); instead of television or computer time after 8pm, try stretching, yoga, a quiet game, enjoyable music, a good story over candlelight, a warm shower, an epsom salt bath, a walk in the snow or a long, satisfying meal with a good conversation.

10. Be Kind, You Meany. Maybe no one else is being kind to you, but you can be kind to yourself. Maybe you don’t know how, and that’s okay, too, because everything takes time. Just breathe, tell yourself one nice thing or reserve judgment for something you would usually condemn yourself for. Laughter does a lot of good, so if it works for you to laugh about depression (a little backwards and dark, but so what), here’s a link to show you that you are not alone. http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2011/10/adventures-in-depression.html

Resources: Bauman College Mental Health Therapeutics; Better Nutrition, December 2011; www.westonaprice.org; www.drsinatra.com