Category Archives: Integrative Health and Nutrition

Food For Comfort And Health

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Food For comfort

The typical American diet exceeds the recommended levels of added sugars, refined grains, sodium and saturated fat, according to data collated by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Unfortunately, many of our favorite comfort foods – if we follow traditional recipes – can tip us over the edge in these categories. With some carefully chosen tweaks and substitutions, however, it is possible to enjoy our favorites without costing our health, helping to cultivate a healthy relationship with food as we journey towards a holistic lifestyle.

Perfect Pasta

Mac and cheese ranks highly as a popular comfort food. Traditional recipes, featuring refined pasta and high levels of fat and sodium, are a problem for those of us following a healthy eating plan, but luckily, there are ways around this. Whole wheat macaroni is the first substitution to make, ensuring you avoid the blood sugar spikes associated with white pastas. Cooked and pureed butternut squash combined with vegetable stock can be mixed into a roux, providing the base for a healthier cheese sauce. You can use less cheese by maximizing flavor in other ways: adding roasted garlic, for example, or paprika. Yogurt could be used in a more traditional cheese sauce, and vegetables can be added to increase the nutritional value of the meal. Any pasta dish can be given a healthy twist by using whole wheat noodles and increasing the vegetable content. Use herbs and spices for low-sodium flavor, and minimize your use of processed meat products.

Fried Favorites

Some of our most-loved comfort foods tend to be fried, but banishing the fryer doesn’t mean we have to lose out. The way in which we heat up our food is heavily linked to its nutrition, but it’s absolutely possible to put a healthy spin on fried chicken without losing flavor: combine breading ingredients with paprika, cayenne pepper and garlic powder and bake chicken pieces for a deliciously crispy – and healthy – meal. Fish can also be breaded and baked, which is much better for us (but no less tasty) than battering and frying it. Remember that many of the bases for unhealthy foods are actually natural whole foods: if we treat them correctly, they can be enjoyed as part of a healthy lifestyle. Potatoes themselves aren’t bad for us… but what we do to them can be. Fresh potatoes in place of frozen fries can be tossed in olive oil and a small amount of salt to produce a healthier french fry alternative.

Safer Sweets

If we want to stay on track, it’s important not to deny ourselves the occasional treat. However, there are things you can do to make those sweet treats healthier if you want to enjoy them more regularly. To cut down on refined sugars in cookies and cakes, consider substituting them with maple syrup, honey or coconut sugar. Replace half the white flour with wholemeal if you’re baking a fruit pie, and ask yourself if you really need to add sugar to the fruit. Again, desserts that are traditionally fried can be baked – a donut is still a donut when it’s hot from the oven. Even cheesecakes can be made healthier with some careful use of yogurt or coconut milk.

A whole health approach to eating isn’t simply about eating more vegetables. Food should bring us joy, and finding healthy takes on our favorite comfort foods is way to incorporate good nutrition into our diets without denying ourselves the pleasures of a treat.

For more whole health discussions like this, listen to my weekly radio show Living Above The Drama available on iHeartRadio.

Author Credit: Allie Oliver

Is Whole Person Health A Happier Form Of Health Care?

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There is no doubt that in recent years the turnover rate among health care providers has increased significantly. According to the Voluntary Hospitals for America’s Workforce Stability Study, the average turnover rate is 20 percent, which will ultimately cost a health care facility $5.5 million a year in replacement costs, with nurses representing the single largest labor expense for hospitals. What is causing such a high turnover rate and how does it affect patient care? This article will look into these factors as well as consider how applying more Whole Health Education could mean happier nurses, who stay long term.

Dr. Abraham Maslow identified five levels inherent to human need, motivation and drive. Maslow taught us that aside from basic survival and safety needs, we have a deep innate drive to belong, to have self-esteem and experience self-actualization. Like all human beings, health care provider needs, as identified by Maslow, must be met. However, faced with the daily grind of working in an environment that does not allow for the essential relationship-centered interactions and compassionate caring that is necessary for work satisfaction and self-esteem, the workplace can become detrimental emotionally and even spiritually. This can happen in work environments where the emphasis is on a medical model of care rather than a nursing model of care giving. Often, this is remedied through employer-sponsored educational, training or staff-development opportunities. But as budget cutting becomes prevalent, those are increasingly not available and providers are faced with caring for more patients with fewer resources in a high-speed, immensely stressful health care environment.

Numerous studies have shown the direct correlation between care provider satisfaction and patient satisfaction.

According to Press Ganey & Associates, which analyzed summary data from 33 U.S. hospitals in October 2003, “there is an almost perfect correlation between hospital employee satisfaction and patient satisfaction.” According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, more nurses at the bedside could save thousands of patient lives each year. Patients who have common surgeries in hospitals with low nurse-to-patient ratios have an up to 31 percent increased chance of dying. Patients and providers alike have the same need for relationships and for being valued.

Providers are suffering as equally as their patients are from the lack of time to connect and build respectful, meaningful relationships with one another. The result of this breakdown of relationship building is expressed through the staggering turnover rates and attrition seen across the country, most especially in the field of nursing. Whether the care provider spends 60 seconds, three minutes or an hour with a patient, the presence, focus and mindful intention he or she brings to that interaction becomes the foundation from which all future interactions evolve.

It is only with new models of Whole Health Education and that teach health care professionals to treat whole people, rather than just diseases, and to form relationships with their patients can we begin to improve patient care and reduce costs for all. Health care organizations today are increasingly tasked with reducing costs. Educational programs and staff-retention initiatives are among the first items to be cut. But given the overall picture and the high cost of recruiting new employees, holistic medicine education and retention should be a high priority.

For more whole health discussions like this, listen to my weekly radio show Living Above The Drama available on iHeartRadio.

 

What Is The New Integrative Medicine?

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integrative medicineThere is no doubt that today more and more people are turning to integrative medicine and alternative modalities for their health concerns and disease prevention. This popular movement, winning one out of every two Americans as converts, may seem to some like a new idea or a “health revolution”. In reality, it is in a return to period in time, over 400 years ago, when health was seen from a more whole person, integrated and even spiritual perspective.

Until the early 1600’s, the realm of human health was believed to represent a person’s spiritual state. If one was healthy that meant they bore not demons. If one was sick, that meant they needed to purge sickness, which was seen as “possession” or a spiritual incorrectness that had to be remedied. The prevailing church of the day, ruled by the Vatican, exerted a huge influence over the medical community and how people viewed the cause and cure of their disease.

In 1612, physician Anton Descartes, a powerful, influential physician and scientist, declared, “I think therefore I am” , stating that the mind and body were two separate, unrelated parts of a human being, and as such the study and treatment of the human being needed to be separated into the mind or spirit portion and the physical bodily portion.

Descartes lead the political movement to separate the body from the soul, a separation in which he and his peers literally brokered a deal with the Vatican, which was reluctant to give up control over its flock. However, the “scientific revolution” was gripping the culture and the church knew it was prudent to agree. Thus, the division of mind and body began and the practice of medicine started down the slippery slope to where we find ourselves today.

Since this division set up a medical system that treated only physical health, it became considered, by the mass majority, that this form of medicine was the only legitimate form of health care. However, over the course of the past 50 years people have grown sicker and increasingly dissatisfied with the medical system.

This led to an increase in the use of “untried” remedies and treatments which offered success and often cures for varied ailments. These “alternatives” treatments attempt to address the whole person rather than just the physical body. Because of the success of alternative treatments, and their resultant popularity, we are currently experiencing a renaissance of the “whole-person” body, mind and spirit approach to healing.

Today, thanks to the Internet, we have more information about every aspect of health than ever before. Still, there exists confusion between alleopathic medicine and integrative medicine, how their treatment approaches differ and how one can discern what is right for their particular need or condition. By comparing and contrasting both approaches individuals can be empowered with information to make an educated decision about how they would like to address their personal health care and what forms of health care they would like to incorporate.

Often called modern medicine, conventional or traditional, allopathic medicine defines health as the absence of disease. The term comes from the Greek roots meaning “opposite” and “disease”, referring to a principle of curing a disease, disorder or problem by administering drugs or surgery that produce the opposite effect of the problem.

The main cause of illness is considered to be viruses or bacteria and scientific tests are used to diagnose before drugs or surgery are prescribed. Furthermore, the emphasis here is more on “attacking the problem”, seen as an invader or enemy outside the self rather than exploring the cause and effect of the problem and working to identifying what needs to be changed or altered to bring about the return of health.

Alternative, natural, complementary or holistic medicine practices approach the problem or condition from a focus of identifying what particular choices or behaviors the individual might be making that is leading to the expression of symptoms collectively called their “disease or diagnosis”.

In contrast, because integrative medicine bridges the gap between traditional and alternative medicine, an integrative physician or practitioner would evaluate not only the patient’s physical health, but also the other aspects of their life that may be influencing their health.
Scientific evidence and ancient teachings have proven that there are multiple components to health that make up a whole person, therefore, illness cannot be cured or wellness realized without taking multiple aspects into account.

For example, a traditional alleopathic approach to a sore throat could include a drug substance or over the counter aspirin and possibly a cough and sore throat medicine. The integrative medical practitioner, trained to stimulate the body’s natural healing potential, may well prescribe nutritional changes, herbs, aromatherapy, gargling with various natural extracts, vitamins, garlic, broths, vegetable or juice extracts, calcium sources or homeopathic remedies.

By looking at different patient situations we can see how traditional and integrative medicine differs in their approach. Patient A is a 35-year old male who is married with two children and works in a high stress job. He considers himself healthy however, despite working out fairly regularly and eating healthy, he is constantly tired and has trouble sleeping at night.

On the opposite end of the spectrum Patient B is a 50-year old single stay-at-home mom who is raising a young son. She has high cholesterol, is borderline diabetic and is generally not in good health.

Patient A: Conventional Analysis & Treatment Recommendation: This patient would most likely be given a blood test to check for anemia or pathology and then prescribed a sleeping pill to deal with the insomnia. If nothing showed up on the blood test, the practitioner would probably recommend addressing the stress with a pill to calm down to seeing a therapist to deal with his stress.

Patient A: Integrative Analysis & Treatment Recommendation: This practitioner would also probably order a blood test to check for anemia or pathology. After assessing that possibility, if the blood test came back “negative” (ironically, that’s positive!), the practitioner would then explore and discuss with the individual what they felt is contributing to their problem. Based on the patients’ self-awareness and the practitioners mindful listening and assessment of the patient, the practitioner might recommend a homeopathic remedy, a change in sleep venue or a new bed, meditation before retiring, an decrease in stimulating food such as caffeine and alcohol, and an increase in fruits and vegetables in t he diet. The multiple aspects of the individual’s life and their own innate awareness of their health would be considered.

Patient B: Conventional Analysis & Treatment Recommendation:This patient would be given a blood work-up to determine her levels of cholesterol and glucose or blood sugar. Depending upon the values found on the tests, the doctor would prescribe medications appropriate for lowering the levels of cholesterol and/or blood sugar. The doctor may also suggest the patient make an appointment with a dietician to go over dietary changes.

Patient B: Integrative Analysis & Treatment Recommendation: This practitioner would also do a blood work-up to assess the patient’s various blood values. However, rather than prescribing a drug to lower or later levels, this practitioner may invite the individual into a discussion about what she felt she could do to bring these levels down to avoid the need for a medication.

The discussion would outline and recommend options for lowering cholesterol which would include natural supplements, dietary changes or adding more vegetables and whole sprouted grains instead of high fat foods, an exercise program that she would be able to follow, drinking more water, using homeopathic remedies to improve her overall health, discuss her social life and recreation. This practitioner would focus on changing the causes of her chronic condition rather than just medicate it.

The options we are offered today through Integrative Medicine invite us to become more pro-active and better informed as well as become better health care consumers. This empowers us to take greater control over our health outcomes and longevity. That’s a prescription for good health we can all live with.

For more information on integrative whole health and nutrition, Watch Two Hours of FREE Whole Health Course Excerpts from the National Institute of Whole Health.

Accomplish Your New Year’s Resolution With Mindful Eating

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Accomplish Your New Years Resolution With Mindful Eating

I love what Geneen Roth has to say about our relationship with food and how it reflects our relationship with ourselves.  In my over thirty years as a clinical nutritionist, I have observed, like Geneen, that we feed ourselves the same way we live our lives. The way of mindful eating is that our eating patterns and nutrition, like adaptation and survival, are critical components of our ability to live and thrive. Accomplish your New Year’s resolution, such as improving your health or losing weight, with mindful eating.

The Source Of The Challenge

In spite of the fact that the food we eat has such a significant impact on our whole being and quality of life, most of us are wildly confused about nutrition. This is especially true today because this basic necessity has turned into a multi-billion dollar industry, selling us foods and nutrition related goods our parents didn’t need or know about.

“In the old days”, food was produced more naturally with less processing, lifestyles were less complicated and decidedly less stressful.  Remember how we said we would never grow up to be like our parents? We may want to rethink that – they are the healthiest and wealthiest generation ever!  Nutrition has become a big health issue because of poor quality food, soaring stress levels and our lack of exercise.  “The balanced diet” –the tried and true standard for good nutrition has been pushed aside for every conceivable variation on what and how to eat.

Some of this new information is quite useful and lots of it appeals to our vanity or desire to avoid taking the long look at what Geneen Roth refers to as “being present to our food and our lives.” If we are present, we realize that moderation and balance (just like with stress!) is the way to go.  Our foods are chemicals and can affect our emotions as well as our bodies.

A Grainy Example

An example of this is excess grain consumption. Human beings do not produce enzymes to break down cellulose, the outer protective layer of grain.  Many animals like cows and horses can eat grain in its natural state without a problem. If we attempted that, we would injure our mouths and esophagus, so we alter the grain from its natural state to flour, in order to consume it.  We think we can eat whatever, so we get creative and bake, fry, boil, etc. this processed grain into “food.”

Unfortunately, the majority of us do not tolerate the protein gluten found in most grains.  Gluten can damage and weaken the lining of our gut, leading to all kinds of problems, which can include eating disorders, obesity and depression. Humans are also the only mammals that continue to consume milk after weaning, and it’s breast milk from another species at that.

When we are experiencing mindful eating, we become aware of our body’s responses to what we put into it.  That requires slowing down, which is what our nervous systems have to do for our digestion to work properly. Stress is “anti-nutritious” because during stress our ability to deal with the “emergency” at hand.  Stress also significantly increases the need for certain nutrients, which are critical for the stress response. Protein, Vitamins A, B, C, and E, unsaturated fatty acids and minerals need to be replenished.

Moving Forward Mindfully

How we can improve our nutrition and discern what is best for us? We can observe why and how we eat, what feedback our bodies give us and consider the always prudent common sense approach of balance and moderation.  We are living beings, we need to eat living food.  The good news is you can eat all the fruits, vegetables, salads, veggie soups and stews you want (barring allergies) and you can’t go wrong!

For more whole health discussions like this, listen to my weekly radio show Living Above The Drama available on iHeartRadio.

Avoiding The Dreaded Flu

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avoiding the dreaded fluEvery year we are inundated with reports of possible flu pandemics and cautioned to get our flu shots early. For those who are staunch devotees of the annual flu shot, the sooner the better. However, some have grown concerned about putting provocative proteins, such as flu shots, into our bodies. Fortunately, there are alternatives that can be utilized to prevent us from getting the flu.

The number one determining factor in whether or not you get a cold or flu is the strength of your immune system. The healthier and more resilient your immune system, the less likely you are to get sick. What is the best way to keep your immune system healthy and resilient throughout the flu season?

Good Hygiene
It sounds too simple to be important, but hand washing is the number one prevention tool in avoiding colds and flus. Keep germs at bay with regular washing.

Sufficient Rest
Getting enough sleep is essential for your nervous and immune systems to function at optimal levels. Being sure not to “run yourself down,” as grandma might have recommended, is really good advice.

Proper Nutrition
Vitamins C, B, A, D, and E, protein, essential fatty acids, and calcium rich foods are all important in keeping your body functioning well and having the resilience to fight off the flu. Practice and encourage holistic, integrative nutrition.

Minimizing Stress
Stress suppresses your immune function. By keeping stress at bay, you will allow your body its best advantage to stay healthy.

Relaxing And Enjoying Life
Laughter and pleasure have been shown in clinical trials to enhance immunoglobulins, which increase immune function activity and keep us healthy. By creating more time and opportunity for regular fun and pleasure, you will help your body stay well.

Dressing Appropriately
Many people don’t realize that the weather and temperature have a significant impact on their stress adaptation and immune system. Being properly dressed against all forms of weather helps to prevent colds and flu.

The National Institute of Whole Health‘s simple yet essential tips for staying well can help, whether you choose to have a flu shot or not, to give your body the best advantage against flu season.

For more whole health discussions like this, listen to my weekly radio show Living Above The Drama available on iHeartRadio.

Secrets About Our Wonderous Immune System

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Integrative Nutrition Immune BoostTruly one of the most amazing examples of inter-cooperative, biochemical engineering imaginable! The immune system – our own personal National Guard and Marine Corps, rolled into one. It is always vigilant – 24/7 to keep us from harm and invasion by foreign enemies – microbes that want to grow and flourish in our internal environment.

One of the fun things about teaching this course for the past 30 years is watching the reactions of learners as they “get” what their immune system really is – that great
“ah-ha!” moment when the dots get connected and it all makes sense. This is when we start to have a different relationship with our body and a new respect for how awesome, amazing, and comprehensive the immune system is!

When most of us think “immune system” we think of tonsils, spleen, lymph nodes (glands in our armpits, throat, and groin), and of course our white blood cells. These body parts certainly are members of the immune elite. If you check with the encyclopedia or on Google, you are likely to find these wonderful entities under the definition of the immune system.

However, when we look at this amazing system from a Whole Person Health perspective, this shortlist of parts becomes a much longer one, indeed. There are dozens of white blood cells and related specialized immune cells that do a phenomenal job of playing “Pac-Man” with the unwanted microbes in our bloodstream, tissues, and organs. Every organ in our body has an immunological role to play from the liver, which detoxifies, to the stomach which contains hydrochloric acid to kill bacteria and microbes coming in through the mouth, up to and including our nostril hairs that trap unwanted foreign particles before they can irritate our airways.

In fact, there is no part of our body that isn’t part of our immune system. The largest “part” of our immune system is our skin which is responsible for protecting our insides from outside entities and vice versa. As the skin is the number one rated beauty or sexual attraction in both men and women around the world, (anthropological research by Margaret Mead and others) we can easily see that to have beautiful skin is a reflection of a healthy immune system and a strong indicator of a healthy and productive system. Beautiful skin and a healthy immune system, always start from the inside out.

Join the conversation. If you enjoyed this article, be sure to follow NIWH on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates filled with accredited health program information for holistic nurses and whole health coaches or advocates.

What Is The Role Of A Health Coach?

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By Georgianna Donadio, MSc, DC, PhDwhat is the role of a health coach?

Everywhere you look these days you see references to “health coach certification.” What exactly IS a health coach and what can they do for your health? The word coach means “to bring out the best effort or aspect.”  A health coach is someone who facilitates your identifying lifestyle behaviors that bring out your very best health outcomes.

Coaching enhances your health and wellness by facilitating your focus and awareness on what you want to do and how you want to do it. The health coach certification process focuses on where are you now and where you want to go. Your intentions are viewed as the main motivating factor in the choices you make and the behaviors you exhibit.

Because this is a young specialty, it is important to be sure to work with a well-trained and experienced professional. There are many programs that now offer health coach certification, but unless you are working with a health professional who is licensed or certified in their medical or health specialty and also trained by an accredited health coaching program, you could find yourself very dissatisfied with the services you receive.

If you want to utilize a health coach to assist you with your weight loss for instance, you may want to find a nutritionist or a weight loss specialist or counselor who is also trained as a health or wellness coach. The health coach’s role is to assist you in identifying your goals – goals that are realistic and sustainable for you to achieve your desired health outcomes and maintain them.

Health coaching is an exciting addition to the many health and wellness services out there today. As with all health related care, be sure and explore the credentials and reputation of the individuals you work with. It is your time, money and health that’s depending on you working with the right person.

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What Patients and Healthcare Providers Should Know About Placebo Effect

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By Georgianna Donadio, MSc, DC, PhD

What Patients and Healthcare Providers Should Know About The Placebo Effect Given the way the health sciences have been taught in nursing and medical schools, it is perfectly understandable for physicians and nurses trained more than 25 years ago to think the placebo effect didn’t make sense and was perhaps a popular explanation for sudden healing – or a “spontaneous remission.” It is a leap for many to understand how a person think or believe something and that simple act of belief could heal them. That’s why the National Institute of Whole Health is using this article to explore what health coaches and nurses should know about our reality and the placebo effect of belief.

Researching Placebo Effect

Up until the last twenty or so years, research scientists did not have a grasp on how the brain and our emotions worked to create our reality. The subject of emotion has been and still is very much “uncharted waters” in behavioral science. However, what is well documented today is how the various brain waves function and portions of the brain control and stimulate thoughts, beliefs and feelings.

The “beta waves” are the brain waves that allow us to focus on the words in this blog and comprehend, in the moment, what is intellectually being communicated. These waves are produced in the frontal lobe, which is the seat of intellectual functioning. Thinking, analyzing, reasoning and so forth occur in this part of the brain.

The “alpha waves” which are the slower brain waves originate in the mid-brain and are the brain waves that allow us access to our unconscious thinking or what some refer to as the soul. All thought processes, be it from the beta wave or alpha wave region of the brain, are actually chemical reactions that produce specific proteins which communicate with our immune cell membranes and other cell membranes of our body.

Thoughts Are Powerful

The specific thoughts we think and the region of the brain they originate in have an identifiable chemistry that has been shown to create dramatic changes in our physical bodies. In Dr. Paul Pearsall’s groundbreaking book “The Hearts Code,” he tells many amazing mind/body stories.

One in particular is a striking example of how powerful thoughts and images are. This story is about a schizophrenic patient who demonstrated completely different disease states depending on the personality she was exhibiting. Ultra sounds, cat-scans, lab tests all confirmed that one of her personalities had a massive cancerous tumor and yet when she went into a different personality state all of her previous pathology disappeared as well.

Our brains are the ultimate manifestors of matter. The chair you are sitting on was a thought before if became that chair. Thoughts are “things” – and thoughts in action are what manifest reality. A previous blog discussed a woman who was cured of her stiffness after the sham surgery. Her mind manifested a different set of thoughts through her hope and expectations for the outcome of the surgery. Her brain waves and proteins created positive chemistry, which communicated with her immune system through its cell membranes. The results – she became healthier and could “stride across the room.”

The idea of mind over matter is a powerful one. This science, and our understanding of its amazing chemistry, is in its infancy stage. In the future we will take the possibility of healing ourselves with thought and imagery for granted just as we now do about people having an organ transplant – which was unheard of not that long ago.

In the meantime, we can all improve our health coaching and nursing success by encouraging our clients and patients to improve their “self-speak,” reinforcing their bodies and minds with positive words, thoughts and images.

 

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How To Detoxify Your Environment

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By Georgianna Donadio, MSc, DC, PhD

Detox Your EnvironmentWe are bombarded every day with hundreds of chemical toxins in our environment. Plastic particles, heavy metals, pesticides, cleaning toxins, air pollution and hundreds of other chemicals find their way into our lungs, blood stream, immune system and body systems.

Here are 10 easy tips from the National Institute of Whole Health, to help de-toxify your environment and purify your body, preventing illness and even early aging.

Tip #1: Protect your body from pesticides by thoroughly washing your fruits and vegetables to remove most of the pesticide residue.
If you can find, grow or afford organic produce, this is your best assurance against ingesting unwanted pesticides.

Tip #2: Use cotton, polyester or hemp over plastic bathroom shower and window curtains. Plastic emits toxic chemicals easily eliminated by using alternative materials

Tip #3: Don’t inhale gas fumes when you are filling your tank and avoid exhaust fumes when jogging or walking in a heavily trafficked area. We know that gasoline contains lead and other pollutants and should not be inhaled>

Tip #4: Use only natural body creams or replace them with olive or walnut oil. The chemicals found in body creams and lotions as well as makeup and other beauty products can be carcinogenic and should be avoided.

Tip #5: Avoid all second-hand and third-hand smoke. Exposure to second- or third- hand smoke kills over 50,000 people every year.

Tip #6: Keep over the counter pill use to a minimum. Studies show a direct correlation between high over the counter drug use and liver and brain damage, as well as an increase of Alzheimer’s disease.

Tip #7: Wipe your feet or take off your shoes of before coming into your house. This will reduce the amount of lead dust and allergens you can bring into the house from your shoes.

Tip #8: Lather up. Using soap liberally when you are showering or bathing is the best and most natural way to eliminate environmental toxins from your skin, which is the largest immune component of your body, and also the part of the body most in contact with the external environment.

Tip #9: Eat low mercury fish. By choosing cod, flounder, wild Alaskan or Pacific salmon – as well as clams and shrimp – you can avoid mercury rich foods. Swordfish, mackerel and tuna fish all have higher levels of mercury than the white fish mentioned.

Tip #10: Replace highly chemical house cleaners with the now popular green cleaners that do not irritate the lungs or skin.

By following these 10 simple ways to detox your environment, you can save your liver and immune system the work of detoxifying these chemicals out of your body. This will, over time, prove to be a “life saver” – literally!

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Integrity Influences Your Healthy Choices

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Healthy Choices

Driven by personal history and ambition, successful people offer perfect examples of the potential outcome of serotonin-driven self-soothing. This invites us to ask and answer questions about self-esteem and self-care. In exploring theme, we often find that integrity and healthy choices tend to go hand-in-hand.

When we understand the relationship between our unconscious mind, our self-esteem, and the stress of looking for love “out there,” it becomes clear that what is at the core of our “super sizing” or over-eating is not solved by the diet of the month or the next how-to best seller. Rather, what is called for is an examination of:

  • Ego State
  • Personal World View
  • Treatment of Nature and Others
  • Values
  • Beliefs
  • Consumption
  • Accumulations

Aspects of Whole Health And Self-Awareness

When these aspects of self are aligned with choices that lead to moderation rather than ambition, that produces balance rather than extremes, which debunks the thinking that “more is better.” We then select the foods we innately know are healthy, even when we must choose from a fast food menu.

In a culture comprised of 5% of the world population, using 75% of the world’s resources, we have come to accept access as a way of life. The 1980’s Robin Leaches’ TV show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, tainted our appetites for over-consumption, which has brought us to where we are today– obese and chronically diseased.

Making Healthy Choices With Integrity

World wide, healthy cultural traditions offer us an opportunity to re-think our approach to the way we live. Folk wisdom invites us to ponder:

How much do I really need to —–

> Have?
> Eat?
> Own?
> Control?

What do I need in order to be content? And, what role does gratitude in my life is? Having a calm, well-functioning nervous system can be a main objective for all of us instead of trying to trick the body into doing what is not natural with the latest diet craze or supplement pills available.

Asking Different Questions

It may be time for us to not only change the question we ask ourselves but the questions we are asked as consumers. What if, when making food purchases, the questions were “supersize or downsize” and the choice we make could result in significant weight loss rather than weight gain? That might put us on the road to health instead of heart disease and diabetes, which more and more research shows comes from stress and poor food choices.

So, are your food choices congruent with your personal values?