Monthly Archives: December 2014

ayurveda, blissful living, healthy eating, healthy living

Why a Gentle Detox is Perfect Now

This is the perfect opportunity to slow down and tune in to yourself.

Though we may eat lighter in the summertime, our bodies can still build up multiple toxins from rushing to pack in a ton of activities. Certain dietary habits, keeping the kids occupied and technology overload all contribute to the build up.

The juncture between the heat of the summer and winter’s cold provides a perfect opportunity to recognize bad habits and then embrace healthier ones as you transition into fall and winter. I recommend that people synchronize four detoxes a year with each change of seasons. Fall is a natural time of transition when we want to feel more vibrant and clear.

Doing a gentle detox will not only facilitate the removal of toxins from your body, it will strengthen your immune system against wintertime viruses.

7-Day Detox

I offer three specific detox programs, from gentle to very deep and intense. A gentle detox program will reset your body and mind, and my 7-Day Detox program is safe, effective and based on Ayurvedic principles.

Popular cleanses that ask you to take extreme measures are not designed to support you in the long run. They’re meant to help you purge quickly.

When you detox too quickly, you remove some (but not the majority of) toxins so it leaves your body in an imbalanced state.

In my 7-Day Detox program, your body will cleanse itself physically and mentally but you’ll also lose some weight. I’ve had clients lose anywhere from five to ten pounds. Most importantly, you’re nourishing your body with yummy food. Continue reading →

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ayurveda, health and wellness, healthy eating, healthy living

Which Spice is Right for You? – Part II

Last week, I talked about some of the most powerful anti-disease spices (turmeric, cloves, ginger) and how you can use them to boost your health (check out last week’s blog post HERE . Let’s continue our journey to uncover which spices are best to add to your diet this fall to rejuvenate body, mind and spirit.

CINNAMON

The rate of diabetes in the US is increasing dramatically. The phenomenal news is that cinnamon is a natural blood sugar regulator. Incredibly, when diabetics use cinnamon in therapeutic doses as prescribed by their clinician, they can gain long-term control of the regulation of their blood sugar levels.images-1

The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine states that taking cinnamon is very useful in the care of patients with Type II diabetes. It’s unclear why this finding isn’t emphasized more widely to those suffering!

However, though cinnamon can be very powerful for Type II diabetes, it probably won’t work to control blood sugar for those with Type I diabetes. For anyone with autoimmune diseases that attack the insulin producing pancreas, cinnamon won’t affect them as much as people without those illnesses.

In Italy, research has shown that cinnamon is more effective than any antibiotic (including amoxicillin) at killing the H. pylori bacteria (which causes stomach ulcers leading to stomach cancers). The bacteria didn’t show any resistance to the spice as it does with normal pharmaceutical medication.

Cinnamon can also be used to help prevent and treat cholesterol, food poisoning, heart disease, high blood pressure, pre-diabetic metabolic syndrome, ovarian cysts, stroke, ulcers and wounds.

Shake some into your coffee, onto your apples or oatmeal and know you’re helping your body in multiple ways. Continue reading →

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ayurveda, health and wellness, healthy eating, healthy living

Which Spice is Right for You? – Part I

Fall is the perfect moment to discover which herbs and spices keep the inner fire burning as we enter the colder months. In Ayurveda, we value herbs and spices as medicine. Let’s look at their lesser-known preventative health benefits.

TURMERIC

Did you know you can beat the beat the fall/winter blues with turmeric? Studies have found it helps to reduce depression. Turmeric owes its preventative and curative skills to an active ingredient, curcumin, a diverse compound with rich antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions.

For 1000s of years, curcumin has been shown to protect and improve the health of every organ in the body. This has been documented more recently in human and animal studies.

Spices_in_an_Indian_marketCurcumin combats over 70 maladies including some of our biggest health threats: cancer, heart disease, Type II diabetes and Alzheimer’s. It also helps alleviate asthma, blemishes, high blood pressure, gout pain, Parkinson’s disease, cystic fibrosis and cholesterol problems.

In India, turmeric is called the anti-cancer spice. It inhibits the action of genes that actually trigger cancer, curbs the proliferation of tumorous cancer cells, prevents the development of blood supply necessary for cancer cells to form and enhances cancer-destroying effects of chemotherapy in radiation.

Stir a dash of turmeric into kitchari, any rice dish or couscous and savor your meal’s delightful flavors. Continue reading →

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