I work with many clients who come to me with various diagnoses…labels that define a collection of symptoms, lab results, past histories, and current ailments. These are outward descriptions of underlying problems.

While a diagnosis can give insight into how to move toward better health, it shouldn’t be your only decision-maker. It shouldn’t decide how you begin caring for yourself nor should it choose the tools that you use. Don’t stop at your diagnosis!

Now don’t get me wrong! I’m all for seeking out necessary and appropriate medical care, along with a...

It’s that time of year again. Pumpkins on the porch, a chill in the air, and a shot in the arm to keep you “healthy.”

The influenza vaccine remains a hot topic for many reasons and it seems that most of us on the receiving end find ourselves in one camp or the other—the yearly takers or the steadfast no way-ers!

Whether or not you choose to get this yearly vaccination, I hope you educate yourself as to the benefits, risks, and effectiveness of this sometimes confusing dose of prevention.

For the 2018-2019 flu season, the vaccine was only 29% effective at preventing...

A Food-As-Medicine Lifestyle combines the healing power of food with the synergy of restorative lifestyle habits to empower your health on a daily basis. It creates the foundation for feeling vibrant and living from a place of wellness every single day. That sounds like a great place to be!

In the next few posts, I’ll be sharing some useful and actionable food-as-medicine lifestyle interventions that you can implement right away. So, let’s jump in with this first one:

Use foods before supplements to maximize your health and wellness.

There’s a supplement for that!...

Let’s talk about another foundational Food-As-Medicine lifestyle intervention that will provide you with nourishment from the end of your fork, and beyond.

Last time we looked at why it’s important to use foods before supplements to maximize your health and wellness. There is definitely power in numbers, and one isolated nutrient can’t always provide the synergy that comes from getting that same nutrient in combination with other compounds like protein, phytochemicals, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.

And now, for door number 2!

Balance your active lifestyle with...

Homemade Elderberry Syrup

Simple ingredients and packed with food-as-medicine colorful goodness. This butternut squash pasta sauce makes a great alternative to dairy-based cheese sauces, and it leaves you feeling warm, cozy, and nourished from the inside out. 

So we talked a bit last time about leaky gut — when the used-to-be tight lining of your intestinal walls become leaky (think of a soaker hose leaking out water compared to a standard garden hose that keeps all the water in). Offending foods, medications, pathogenic organisms, or a continual bath of stress hormones, can all contribute to causing leaky gut. As a result, undigested food particles, bacteria, and environmental toxins can slip through your intestinal tissues and into your bloodstream. Nutrients can’t be properly absorbed, and all of these factors together can...

If you’ve had to avoid animal-based dairy for health reasons, or for any other reason, you’ll quickly discover that some dairy-free alternatives leave a lot to be desired. And one of the hardest things to swallow is the price! Dairy-free milks, yogurts, and cheeses can be twice as expensive and sometimes not worth the cost for the other additives and flavor you’re getting. Or should I say, the flavor you’re not getting.

When I had to go dairy-free almost a year ago, most things were pretty easy to give up. I wasn’t a big milk drinker except for a splash in my...

Have you ever had a leaky pipe… maybe a leaky faucet… or worse, a leaky roof? If you’ve ever lived in a home, chances are the answers to the above questions are all: “yes”.

But what about your own body? Beyond the leaky problems that plague homeowners, it’s possible for your body’s internal “pipes” to become leaky and a bit dysfunctional. This condition — referred to as leaky gut, or intestinal permeability, if you want to be technical — leads to more than just localized gut inflammation and malabsorption, but to all-over...