The health of your mouth is a direct reflection of the health of the inside of your body.  Cavities are a warning sign that there is something BIGGER going on inside the body.  The solution is to support the system from the inside with healthy nutritious food and lifestyle practices.  

One major player in your Oral Health is SUGAR!! 

Sugar may seem harmless to you but sugar affects your Oral health and your body in two distinct ways. And due to the SAD, the average American consumes 125g of sugar a day and the recommended daily allotment of sugar is 25g per day. So it’s important that you know how sugar affects you and be more aware of ways to eliminate sugar from your diet. 

Sugar has a direct link to tooth decay.  Sugar feeds the bacteria in your mouth causing the bacteria to produce plaque and acid which dissolves the enamel and weakens the tooth.  

Sugar also, when refined, has no nutritional value added to your body. Infact, the processing of sugar in your body through digesti...

Polyphenol rich foods are essential to your gut health and overall health.  You may not have heard this word before but you will be familiar with the foods rich in polyphenols. 

Polyphenol-rich foods include: 

• blueberries
• flaxseed meal 
• raw cacao 
• plums 
• cherries 
• hazelnuts 
• resveratrol (red wine, grapes, berries)
• pomegranate 
• curcumin 
• green tea 

The polyphenols essentially act as prebiotics for your gut bugs. Prebiotics are like food for your good bacteria – they are PRE biotics. They feed the good gut bugs and help them flourish in your gut.  Polyphenols also reduce inflammation, improve blood pressure management and help to stabilize blood sugar.  

If you are not getting enough polyphenols in your life, start adding them in NOW.  Green tea as a snack, superfood blueberries for breakfast, a sprinkle of flax on a salad or in a smoothie, bake with raw cacao and hazelnuts and cook with curcumin.  It’s easier than you think to incorporate these foods ...

Potatoes can be beneficial to your gut health...what? Did you know this?

With the low carb movement taking over the internet, it’s easy to see those starchy carb heavy potatoes as a benefit to our bodies.  I am here to tell you that with the right preparation, POTATOES can do wonders for your gut health.

The key to getting the benefit from potatoes is to unpack the Resistant Starch benefits from the food.  Resistant starches are foods that do not break down in your digestive track and are considered prebiotics-meaning they feed the good gut bugs in your digestive system.  We want these good gut bugs to flourish as they help break down and digest our foods.  The more good gut bugs we have, the more they will crowd out the bad gut bugs we do not want. 

The benefits of consuming resistant starch include:

• the reduction of inflammation in the colon by helping to lower the colon pH 
• supporting the repair of digestive dysfunctions including symptoms related to both IBS (irritab...

We have all experienced it.  Joint pain….soreness in your back...you sleep funny and your neck hurts for days on end.  What if I told you that improving your nutrition and lifestyle choices ( ie- sleep, hydration, stress management) can improve your  pain and inflammation?

I have been a Physical Therapist practicing with patients for the last 15 years with joint aches and pains making a lot of progress and improving pain for some patients and for others not much at all.  Patients can be stuck in this chronic cycle of pain in their joints and not understand why.  Our medical system may put a band aid on it by prescribing NSAIDS and pain killers, but all the while no one is getting to the root of the problem.  It was my recent certification in Functional Nutrition and Lifestyle that has opened my eyes to the impact of these 2 elements- nutrition and lifestyle- that significantly affect our joints. 

How can nutrition affect our pain?

Nutrition affects our joints and our bodies...

Back to school this year is filled with so many emotions.  And being the planner that I am, I am always trying to stay ahead of the colds, sniffles, sneezes and bugs that back to school always bring, especially this year with the current times we are facing.  

Being a Certified Functional Nutrition Counselor, I will tell you that feeding your kiddos a well balanced and nutritious diet is always first and foremost, but adding a little bit of “boosters” with vitamins is always a way to help ensure our kiddos immune systems are firing on all cylinders. 

Here are my favorite 4 vitamin suggestions to give your kids everyday: 

Multi-vitamin- I am going to be honest, I am not a fan of most of the chewable vitamins on the market as they are full of sugar, preservatives and additives.  I prefer a liquid vitamin that is easy to pour into a little cup or measuring spoon, or even mix in with some applesauce for your kiddos to hide the flavor.  I look for low to no sugar, gluten free, non GMO, d...

It’s finally here.  The kids are officially back to school.

I honestly do not know where the summer went, it always flies by way too fast.  And boy am I out of the school lunch making game.  We took a 18 month hiatus and had the kids stay home all last year so I am very rusty on the school lunch game. Are you rusty too??

I decided that my sanity can only take so much this year and that the roller coaster ride we are on with the kids and school is enough for my nerves and stress levels week by week. I am a planner by nature, where are all my planner type A Momma’s at?? Can I get a high five?

I needed to find a solution to the School Lunch making drama that saved me from fighting with my kiddos over what to eat everyday and my burning desire to feed them the best of the best foods so they stay well and IN SCHOOL this year.  So I sat down with a calendar and my “go to” place for finding recipes...PINTEREST… to create a full month of school lunch ideas.  

I jotted down all our favs and...

Imagine yourself walking down the street on a beautiful sunny day.  You turn the corner and smell the most amazing aroma of sugar and cinnamon coming from a street vendor selling nuts at the end of the block.  Your mouth starts to water, maybe you have a flashback to your childhood eating candies nuts with your beloved Grandma...you are salivating and now your mind is fixated on enjoying those amazing candied nuts.

Has this happened to you?

This is all part of that digestive process...yes, even though you have not even taken a bite of food yet.  

Digestion starts before you take your first bite.  When you smell food cooking, it starts a whole digestion cascade in your body but it all starts in the brain. Smelling the candied nuts triggers your mouth to start salivating. That saliva is full of enzymes that will begin to break down your food when it hits your stomach.  Salivation also activates HCL ( hydrochloric acid) in your stomach to prepare for food to enter your mouth. ...

How do you know when your caffeine intake is getting to be too much for your body??

1. You are constantly seeking that extra jolt of energy, wanting coffee most of the day. 

2. You are wired and tired, meaning you feel exhausted but when you lay down to go to bed at night you are wide awake.  

3.  If you are becoming more anxious as the days go by.

Maybe its time for you to take a pause from caffeine!

Besides coffee's addictive properties, coffee cause a whole host of other health concerns in the body.  

Here is an article describing all the the effects, I have highlighted a few from this article.  If you want to read the entire thing, check it out below.

https://functionalnutritionlab.com/blog/the-chemistry-of-coffee/

"Beyond addictive patterning, coffee has other effects on the body worth considering: 

• over-stimulation of the central nervous system (leading to increased risk of insomnia, adrenal fatigue, irritability and heart issues) 
• elevated blood pressure 
• heartburn
...

A spoonful of healthy fats helps the veggies go down...the veggies go down...the veggies go down...just a spoonful of healthy fat helps the veggies do down, in the most delightful way. 

If you are going to eat the veggies, you want to optimize its health benefits in your body and that means eating your veggies with a little healthy fat. 

"A new study shows that eating fresh vegetables with a little fat, such as oil-based salad dressings or cheese, helps the body absorb valuable nutrients found in vegetables, such as lycopene and beta-carotene, which have been shown to help prevent heart disease and cancer. Researchers say this study shows that the minimum amount of fat required for optimal absorption of these nutrients from the salads is more than 6 grams of added fat."

Good news, healthy fats make everything taste better too.  Be sure to pick the healthiest fat you can...avocado oil, olive oil, grass fed butter, grass fed ghee, grass fed cheese, avocados and coconut oil.  

Suggest...

I concocted up this recipe last week on the fly for dinner and my family gobbled it up.  They key is to have some basic meal prep staples on hand to through together these meals on a busy weekday night without the stress. 

I had shredded chicken and marinara sauce in the freezer on hand ( these always stocked up for quick dinners) so it was a matter of defrosting the staples and making the mixture.  This is a great base recipe for many types of boats--you could make taco boats, BBQ chicken boats, teriyaki chicken boats.  You can make this recipe your own and get creative.  

Happy Cooking!!