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8 Small Steps to Improve Your Fertility Naturally
If you’re a woman with a goal of having babies, fertility is probably on your mind. Sometimes it isn’t until you’ve been trying; but these small steps to improve your fertility naturally are things you can put into practice now. Infertility affects 7.4 million women in the U.S. The good news is that with lifestyle and nutrition changes, you can help tip the odds of getting pregnant in your favor. Here are 8 small steps for improving fertility naturally while also boosting your overall well-being. 1 – Set a Consistent Bedtime Sleep is underrated as a tenet of wellness. When trying to conceive, getting good sleep is essential. When we…
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5 Simple Food Swaps for Clear Skin
It’s so frustrating to deal with acne, especially as an adult. Trust me, I’ve been there. You think you’re doing everything right with a cleansing regimen and minimal makeup, but those pesky bumps are still popping up. Often, skin issues aren’t solved with merely topical solutions. We have to start on the INSIDE. What are you putting in your body (intentionally or unintentionally) that could be contributing to acne? The gold standard for addressing food sensitivities is a full-blown Elimination Diet. You’ll systematically take away common trigger foods and slowly add them back in to watch for reoccurrence of symptoms. It takes time, but it’s worth the investigation. If you’re…
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Carrot Cake Stuffed Dates: A Quick Paleo Snack
I love Carrot Cake. It’s my birthday cake of choice every year. I also love dates! They are so convenient and satisfying in a small amount. Alas, this snack was born. It’s not really anything new. It’s hardly even a ‘recipe’. Here’s how I assemble my carrot cake stuffed dates for a quick, allergen-friendly, paleo, hormone-balancing snack! I looove using Sunflower Seed Butter in snacks. It’s a nut-free alternative that is typically well-tolerated and provides great healthy fats. It’s a staple in my hormone healing diet. This is also a great choice for kids who have issues with peanuts or tree nuts. The best part about these Carrot Cake Stuffed…
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Food Sensitivities vs Food Allergies: Understand the Difference
Is it a food sensitivity or a food allergy? (or a food intolerance??) Every time you take a bite of food, your body has a reaction. Many of these are normal and essential— you need foods to signal the release of enzymes and other chemicals in order for the digestion process to take place. But, there are other types of reactions that can be destructive: food allergies and food intolerances. This ties in the concept of oral tolerance. Food Allergy If you have a ✨FOOD ALLERGY✨, your immune cells have recognized a particular portion of a food as harmful and have produced a specific antibody to combat that food. Once…
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A Functional Nutrition Perspective on Psoriasis
Psoriasis is a skin disorder showing up as excessive production of skin cells. The skin cells accumulate faster than they are shed, resulting in patches of red skin, often covered with silvery scales. There is a strong immune correlation with psoriasis so things like stress, allergies, illness, infection, and inadequate nutrition with affect the immune system will also affect the onset or severity of psoriasis symptoms. Manifestation of symptoms is an immune response targeted to a localized area; if an insult occurs (scratch, sunburn, or other irritation) the body continuously tries to repair the skin by creating new cells. In chronic cases, own body’s own antimicrobial peptides trigger psoriasis: an…
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What does the Liver do? Detoxification explained.
We think of our Liver as the MAIN DETOXIFICATION ORGAN. Yes, true. It actually has hundreds of functions including storage of vitamins and minerals, producing and mitigating cholesterol, breaking down fat, making triglycerides, regulating blood sugar, and metabolizing amino acids. What is detoxification? The liver is responsible for transforming and clearing toxic substances from the blood. “Toxic products” refers to anything from microorganisms, contaminants, drugs, alcohol, pesticides, and our own metabolic end products. In our modern environment, we are exposed to toxins every day. Sometimes it is these external sources (medications, pesticides, chemicals, etc). But, the majority of toxins we deal with are a normal byproduct of our internal processes. …
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Complete Plant-Based Protein + Complementary Protein Explained
Not all proteins are physiologically equal. Some proteins are complete proteins, ie proteins that contain all nine essential amino acids. Other proteins are incomplete proteins, i.e. they lack one or more of the nine essentials. First, what are these essential amino acids? Well, there are 20 amino acids that combine in different chains to make up protein. Nine of them are called ESSENTIAL because our bodies can’t produce them, so we must get them from food. The nine essential amino acids are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine. Animal-based proteins are considered complete because they contain all the necessary amino acids (and more!). However, many plant-based…
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Closet Upgrade featuring NAADAM: What is Sustainable Cashmere?
Sustainable cashmere goes a step beyond organic and is the highest-standard in the industry. Much like sustainability in food, this means better treatment for the animals, the farmers, and the environment. In my opinion, Naadam is a company doing things right. They take a conscious approach to every step of the cashmere process from goat to farmer to consumer. Animal Care: Happy Goats The best cashmere in the world comes from Mongolia’s Gobi Desert. Zalaa Jinst white goats live in extremely cold and harsh climates. To add insult, shearing is an extremely stressful process for goats. To avoid this, NAADAM hand combs their goats to collect the fine fibers…
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5 Food Trends to Watch for in 2022
The New Year is here, and with it, we see emerging food trends. Some are a step in the right direction, building upon last year’s health-conscious consumers; and some are further entrenching our society in a backwards mindset when it comes to food products. I’m excited about the changing landscape and always hoping to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to our health. Nutrition itself is complicated and adaptable. As a nutritionist, I feel a responsibility to constantly explore and question my own beliefs and limitations rather than become entrenched in dogma. It’s my hope that I can inspire others there as well: Constant curiosity about what we’re…
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5 Things to Know Before Starting an Elimination Diet
Before starting an Elimination Diet, here are some key things to know. The Elimination Diet is a powerful therapeutic tool for better understanding a personal nutrition strategy. It can help you reduce inflammation, restore your microbiome, uncover food intolerances, and live a more balanced life. In my opinion, the most valuable part of the “diet” is the reintroduction phase. So often, we want to rush through this phase. We get to Day 31 of a 30-Day-Challenge and BAM! Pizza! MacNCheese! Nachos! All at once, we add things back in and we don’t actually take the time to learn WHAT foods work and which ones don’t. So, I created The Elimination…
