Vermont Acupuncture

Category: Healthful Eating

  • Clean and Clean Gut by Alejandro Junger

    A great resource for cleansing is Dr. Alejandro Junger’s book,  Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body’s Natural Ability to Heal Itself. His book is quite readable and interesting. The three week cleanse he suggests is reasonably easy to follow. He recommends eating two liquid meals and one solid meal each day. Depending on the weather, your activity level and your constitution, you may want to try one liquid and two solid meals. That’s what I am doing this year.

    Dr Junger also has another book called Clean Gut: The Breakthrough Plan for Eliminateing the Root Cause of Disease and Revolutionalizing your Health

    I have done many cleanses over the years and this is the one I go back to. My Nourishing Winter Cleanse is quite similar to this, so if you want to understand more of the science behind our health and food, this is a great read.

  • Spicy Quick Pickled Cucumbers

    2 pounds fresh cucumbers, cut lengthwise into spears (if the cucumbers are big and has big seeds, you can IMG_0425cut out some of the seeds)

    ¼ cup white wine vinegar or unseasoned rice vinegar

    1 t sugar

    ¾ t crushed red pepper flakes

    2 t sea salt, plus more

    2 T chopped dill or other herbs (parsley, cilantro, basil – whatever you have/like)

    2 T fresh lemon juice

    Toss cucumbers in a large bowl with vinegar, sugar, red pepper flakes and 2 t salt. Chill at least 1 hour and up to 6 hours. Rotate once or twice during that time.

    Just before serving, add herbs and lemon juice and toss to combine. Taste and season with more salt if needed.

    Note: This recipe is not very spicy. It is so quick and easy, and it is nice to be able to make it a couple hours in advance. If you want, use a big mason jar, lay it on its side and rotate.

    Thanks to Jeanette Moy for this recipe!

  • Immune System Tip #4 Stop Thinking

    Over-thinking and Digestion

    A lot of people are experiencing stress and anxiety about the Corona virus and its effects on the world. Are you finding yourself worrying, or perhaps having trouble sleeping?

    In Chinese medicine it is clear that anxiety and worry effect our digestive system. Overthinking damages the Spleen, and, conversely, a weak Spleen leads to propensity for overthinking. The Spleen represents the Earth element and the digestive system.

    Eat well to strengthen your Earth energy, your digestion and ultimately your immune system. Foods that benefit the Spleen include hearty stews, roasted root vegetables, and meat. The Spleen likes warming spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and fennel. Minimize intake of grains, carbohydrates and sugars.

    Reigning in your thoughts can also help your digestion and your immune system. Preoccupation with what-ifs, obsessing over COVID stats, excess worry, rumination, and excess thinking, even studying or working, are not ideal for our health. Guide your own thoughts as best as you can.

    One of my teacher’s teachers put it well, “In life you think or don’t think. If you choose to think, make a decision/take action. If you can’t make decision, don’t think about it. Sometimes it is better to not think.”

    Put down the phone. Put down the media. Keep media in its place, which means not letting it take over your thinking!

  • Trifecta Meatballs (Whole30 compliant)

    IMG_7729

     

    These meatballs are sooo much better than the turkey meatballs I made last week, which I over-cooked because I was following a recipe that said to use a meat thermometer to check the inside temperature, but it didn’t work and I cooked them too long. I suggest when you think they might be done, take one out and cut it in half to see if it is done on the inside.

    I created this recipe because I wanted a meatball recipe that would be Whole 30 compliant and super tasty, and it is! It’s also super easy. (more…)

  • Soup Basics: How to Make Soup in 6 Easy Steps

    chicken soupIf you know the basics of soup making, you don’t need to follow the recipe word for word, but instead can glean inspiration from recipes and use what you have on hand. With a nice sharp chef knife, a cutting board and a Dutch oven there are endless possibilities. See equipment below.

    Step 1: Soup base –  Mirepoix

    The base of the soup usually starts with sautéing some vegetables, which flavors the oil or fat. Choose a fat that can handle the temperature. Read more about FATS here.

    • Ghee, clarified butter
    • Coconut Oil
    • Lard
    • Bacon Fat
    • Tallow (beef fat)
    • Butter – keep heat fairly low
    • Olive oil – also not recommended to sautéed at high heat

    Warm the oil/fat on medium heat in a thick-bottomed deep soup pan, such as a Dutch oven, and sauté:

    1-2 finely chopped onion, shallot or leek

    then 1-2 carrots, and if I have it, celery, both chopped finely, or medium-fine, about a half inch chunks.

    Sprinkle with sea salt (maybe a ½ teaspoon or so, I dunno exactly, I don’t measure, I add a little as I go along and usually end up needing to add more at the end.)

    Chefs call the classic mixture “mirepoix”, otherwise known as the “holy trinity” in the cooking world.

    Step 2: More vegetables

    If you want to add more vegetables, you can add them to the mirepoix about 5-10 minutes after the carrots and onions.

    What do you have in the fridge? Here are some vegetable ideas:

    • Sweet potatoes, parsnips, celerac, butternut squash
    • Mushrooms – crimini, shiitake
    • Bell peppers – green, red, yellow
    • Kale, any variety (more…)

  • Spring Cleansing

    Every spring for the last 15 years or so, I do a cleanse of some sort. It started with one month of no sugar, and I did that several years in a row. It was such a great reset. I had been finding it hard toIMG_3294 resist all the wonderful sweet treats available everywhere. Quitting sugar for a month was like hitting the reset button and afterwards I definitely found I craved sugar less and was able to resist the sultry temptations. And now to this day, I can walk into Stone Soup and admire the piles of sweet yumminess, pay for my savory selections, and go on with it, without a second thought. Success!

    Since then I have probably done about five different cleanse programs, each one a couple times, including Clean and Restart, and now I am 25 days into what I call a Whole 30-inspired month (the Whole 30 with some modifications – and perhaps I will do it for longer than a month). (more…)

  • Death by Food Pyramid by Denise Minger

    Death_by_Food_Pyramid_1

    For years I have been frustrated with what I call the brainwashing of our society about what foods are healthy. Even medical professionals routinely recommend dangerously unhealthy diets to their patients. Where is the confusion coming from? Denise Minger hits the nail on the head with her new book, Death by Food Pyramid, and clearly shows where the food pyramid came from and why it is so up-side-down..

    Denise Minger is research scientist with a doctorate in Nutritional Sciences who started her career with a powerful critique of The China Study, a study that condemns animal foods. She has since published hundreds of articles about health and nutrition. She advocates for traditional whole food diets which include healthy fats.

    Michael R. Eades, MD, too, found her work fascinating and wrote a sort of cliff notes/blog trailer for it, which you can read here.

    Check out: Death By Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Ruined Your Health and How to Reclaim It

    Save

    Save

    Save

    Save

  • THE SKINNY ON FATS

    We have been misled nutritionally for decades and I want you to know the truth. Here it is. Fats are good for you. Good fats are good for you, that is.grilled beef

    Good fats are natural fats such as animal fats (beef, lamb, pork, chicken, duck, goose, butter, ghee), full fat dairy (preferably cultured), fish, eggs, coconut, nuts, seeds, avocado, and cold pressed oils (olive oil, fish oil, nut and seed oils – not heated).

    Bad fats are processed fats, hydrogenated fats and cooking vegetable oils. These cause atherosclerosis, heart disease and cancer.[1]

    (more…)

  • RESTART Sugar Detox starts January 24th and January 26th

    11390041_917211258339869_1258854875189158698_n
    Nutritional Therapist and Transformational Coach, Lisa Lord, is running a 5-week program called RESTART.  3 weeks of the program is a Sugar Detox, with one week on each end to ease in and out of the detox.

    There are two sessions beginning next week:

    The evening session begins Tuesday, January 24th, from 6:45-8pm, and the morning session begins Thursday, January 26th, from 8:30am-9:45am.

    It is being held at my office, 161 North Street, Burlington, Vermont.

     

    Lisa is also setting up an online class as well, so if the above time doesn’t work for you, perhaps the online class will be for you. Contact Lisa at 802-310-8084 or hello@lisalordntp.com

    view flier here:

    RESTART

    Save

    Save

    Save

    Save

  • The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease

    Are butter, cheese and steak really bad for you? The dubious science behind the anti-fat crusadeimage001

    This Wall Street Journal Article does a good job explaining why we ought to be eating what our grandparents or great-grandparents were putting on the table, i.e. eat butter, whole milk dairy, all kinds of meat, olive oil and other yumminess – not the vegetable seed oils, tons of grains and low-fat, high-sugar junk. Please read and psst, pass it on.

    http://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303678404579533760760481486

    Save

    Save