1. Yogurt. I’m always surprised that people think of yogurt as a healthy food that’s helpful to eat if you want to lose weight. Our American yogurt is loaded with sugar in the flavorings or fruit added. Truly, it’s much more of a dessert than a main course. Sure, there are probiotics that are good for gut health, but the sugars can spike insulin levels, and there are better ways to get bio-absorbable calcium. Besides, no matter what the dairy lobby would like you to believe, even “fat-free” dairy products are not the dieter’s friend! Personally, I find that eating dairy products is the fastest way to pack on some extra pounds in the blink of an eye.

2. Diet sodas and diet drinks like Crystal Lite. A recent study of over 8,000 women conducted by the University of Austin, TX, concluded that those who drank diet sodas gained more weight over the course of almost a decade than those who don’t. They theorized that the problem lies in the artificial, highly concentrated, and synthetic sweeteners (aspertame, Splenda, etc.) that fool the body into producing insulin and other hormones to digest the sweet flavor, and treat the material as potent sugars that need to be stored in fat cells. Because the body can’t identify these foreign substances, the proper digestive processes are thwarted, and even though these drinks are billed as “low-calorie” or “calorie-free” they should really be called “toxic” and should be considered the antithesis to any health or weight-loss goal!

3. Salmon. Let me specify: any salmon that is not labeled as “wild”, which means that it was farm-raised. Farm-raised salmon — basically any salmon that you pay less than $40/lb for — is not really salmon at all. These genetically-modified fish are grown in over-crowded pens and often fed antibiotics to combat plagues like sea lice, a scourge of too many fish living too closely together under unnatural  conditions. To make their flesh appear pinker and more like the salmon filets we expect, they are fed dyes which may or may not be hazardous to our health (the jury is still out on that one, regardless of the how heavily the FDA has been lobbied by the salmon aquaculture industry). Some of these mutant fish inevitably escape from their pens and breed with wild salmon populations, weakening and contaminating the remaining schools of wild salmon, which are already disappearing from their native rivers at rates never before seen in this country. But back to how healthy it is to order the $12 salmon filet entree at your local Bennigan’s: expect to get antibiotics, potentially carcinogenic dyes, and genetically-modified cells with your bargain plate.

Many of these toxins are bio-accumulative, and can collect in your cells. Depending upon an individual’s level of tolerance and/or amounts of exposure, constant doses of these foods may result in cancers, food allergies, or even auto-immune diseases, as I believe happened in my case with my own diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and 3 years of hives.

This is a topic I speak about frequently as I tour around the country helping people learn how to eat healthier. My latest cookbook arrives in stores nationwide this week. See more about my healthy eating philosophy.

©2009 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

It feels like an appropriate time for some reflection on how I got here. Please indulge me.

Me (on the left) and my friend Jen playing in a waterfall in the Amazon rainforest near Manaus, Brazil, in 1992.

As a teenager, when I thought ahead about my life, I wanted my twenties to be for fun and travel while my 30s would be devoted to a career and family. It pretty much worked out that way, except for the surprise twist that MS threw into the mix. I’m so grateful that I played, dated, and traveled all over the world as a freelance writer and instructional designer in the 1990s when I wasn’t so concerned about or limited by health issues.

Then I met my husband when I was 29 on a chairlift while skiing in Steamboat Springs, CO, and it was love at first sight. We married a year later, in 1999. Looking back, things appeared to be moving ahead right on schedule.

The first decade of the millennium, kicked off by losing sight in one eye 2 weeks before my 30th birthday, started off as a struggle. I hit 2 deer, almost totalled my car, and stopped driving for months. The MS therapies left me bloated, covered in track marks from blown veins, and 30 lbs. heavier in less than a month. For the next three years my body was covered with painful hives that at times were so disfiguring that I couldn’t leave the house for fear of frightening small children.

9/11/2001 began that way for me, as I was homebound that day due to an enormous hive that had expanded my chin to Elmer Fudd proportions. The horror of watching the tragedy unfold was spiked by fear for my sister who was working only blocks away from the World Trade Center that day. It only got worse as I discovered that my childhood friend, Danny Lewin, was on the first plane to hit the towers (though he likely was already dead at that point, the brilliant CEO of Akamai who was raised in Israel and trained in their special forces knew Arabic fluently and was reported as the first one dead on that horrible day when he single-handedly tried to thwart the terrorists and was taken out by a box cutter). But I digress.

Pregnant with my first child in 2002.

This past decade brought my attention to natural health. Between the multiple sclerosis, the hives, bouts with parasites, trying to conceive my first child and then dealing with his severe acid reflux, bowel problems, and resulting sleep issues (he didn’t sleep for years, so neither did I), and the unsatisfactory treatments and answers offered by allopathic medicine, I began to look outside of our Western tradition of medicine – a big leap for the daughter of doctors. I became a Certified Nutritional Consultant and Natural Health Professional.

My new husband, a competitive athlete (a sub-6-minute miler who was once ranked 6th in the world for snowshoeing, among other things), introduced me to organic foods and cooking with whole foods. Together we accidentally invented a way to eat healthily without spending all day in the kitchen. But no one would publish my cookbook about it.

Five frustrating and disappointing years of searching for an agent/publisher culminated in 2005 when I self-published the manuscript no big publisher would touch. Multiple awards and 12,000 copies sold validated my perseverance and brought me to the attention of Broadway Books, a Random House imprint. Fast forward to year and a half later, and here we are, on the eve of the national release of my efforts from the last 10 years.

Can I take a breath yet?

Looking back, I can honestly say that my diagnosis of multiple sclerosis was one of the best things to have happened to me. I am healthier and stronger now than at any other point in my life as a direct result of this diagnosis. I value my husband and my kids more because understand how fragile life and health can be. I have close friends who have been in my life for 20, 30, even 35 years and a tightly-knit extended family. My young children are beautiful, smart, and loving. My marriage is solid and fulfilling.

Because of the MS, I discovered my passions for natural health, food and eating, and helping others. I find it miraculous that I am able to combine my passions into a viable career that allows me to be the kind of mother I want to be while fulfilling my soul. Not much gives me more satisfaction than hearing from people who have changed their lives by cooking with my technique or have benefited from something I’ve written and find themselves healthier for it.

Looking ahead, my hopes for this fifth decade of my life are to further spread my message of better health through better eating through more cookbooks, appearances, classes, writings, etc.; to increase my expertise and knowledge about natural health and nutrition by becoming a naturopathic doctor; to raise healthy and well-balanced children who will become contributing members of our society; and to nurture the love and beauty and joy within my family and in the world.

I intend to continue my own journey toward health and away from the diagnosis of MS while connecting with the MS community and others facing chronic disease conditions through sharing what I have learned that can help them, too.

Of course, my 20-year old self couldn’t have predicted what lay ahead for me, and who knows what curve balls life will throw me next, but I am nothing if not tenacious and determined. I know that I can make my own reality with enough hard work, no matter what the obstacles or twists in the road.

Believe it or not, I have always looked forward to aging and gaining the wisdom that can only come from accumulated experiences. I aim to be the wizened crone with insight into everything from herbs to relationships to new technologies. Not to mention how long I’ve anticipated the day when I won’t get asked for ID when I buy a bottle of wine!

Speaking of wine, let me now raise a glass to you, my blog readers and fans of Glorious One-Pot Meals and natural health, and let’s have a toast to this next phase of our lives together! One of my favorite Irish toasts goes something like this:

May the road rise up to meet you,
and the wind be always at your back.

May 2009 usher in a period of health, joy, love, and prosperity for all of us. L’chaim - to Life!

©2009 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

Reaction from Capitol Hill was swift and sharp. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT., denounced the FDA: “Now, in the administration’s 11th hour, they are quietly trying to water down advisories for women and children about the dangers of mercury in fish, disregarding sound science on this issue. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin capable of impairing childhood development at very low levels.”

Once again, instead of addressing the cause of the mercury that’s contaminating our food we’re going to change the health guidelines to prop up the fishing industry and continue to sell tainted fish to unsuspecting consumers.

And you thought the current administration was done dismantling of policies ennacted to safeguard our food, water, air, and environmental health? No, we will be unraveling the adverse effects for decades to come. Let’s watch what else they try to do in the dusk of their power.

George W. speaks a lot about his legacy and the sale of the health of our nation and of the planet to the industries with the best lobbyists — when we knew better — will certainly be listed among his most wondrous accomplishments.

©2009 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

©2009 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve become quite a water addict myself ever since we received a gift of our Pi-Mag Aqua Pour Gravity Nikken water purifier. This water tastes better than any water I’ve ever tried. It’s incredibly drinkable, which helps me to fulfil my body’s daily needs for this precious liquid.

Not to knock our Brita pitcher, but now we use it to fill the cat’s water fountain. It just doesn’t taste as good as the Aqua Pour water.

Here’s what Nikken says about why this system is so special:

The PiMag Aqua Pour includes several stages of filtration. Water flows through a carbon medium, ion exchange resin and zeolite. Pi ceramics are in the filter, to impart “the water of life.” Final stage filtration consists of a bed of mineral stones, like the stones that provide natural filtering and minerals in streams and rivers. Nikken Magnetic Technology completes the process, as the water passes through a charged field.

Whatever it is that happens to the water, when it comes out the bottom it’s unbelievably tasty and clear. We keep ours next to the sink where we can easily keep it filled with the sprayer hose. The filtration components only need to be changed every 5 years, which makes the $299 price tag not quite so horrifying.

We think it’s one of the greatest gifts we’ve ever received. Not only do we use it all the time, but it’s something that helps us in our quest to be healthier. We seriously appreciate it every day.

Just contact me and I’ll help you get one for yourself or for the most challenging recipient on your gift list.

©2009 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

Environmental experts agree that coal is the dirtiest fuel America uses to produce electricity. The Reality Coalition, a joint project of the Sierra Club, Alliance for Climate Protection, League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, and National Wildlife Federation, is challenging the coal industry to come clean in its advertising and in its operations.

607-lb. blue fin tuna

Coal burning plants not only cause visible air pollution in our urban areas, but the toxic particulates fall to earth in the form of acid rain, polluting our crops and waterways, not to mention the oceans. You’ve heard about rising mercury levels in tuna fish? Near the top of the food chain as predator fish, tuna ingest lots of little fish that have eaten tainted plants and smaller sea organisms. The mercury is bio-accumulative and builds up through the long lifetime of the tuna (up to 30 years or longer).

Almost 35% of the mercury consumed in the U.S. comes from tuna.

What kills me is that our response to the rising mercury levels has been to issue voluntary guidelines as to how frequently we eat tuna fish. These warnings are especially stringent for pregnant women and children, where the developing brains are at the most risk for permanent damage from mercury exposure.

Personally, I would rather see more efforts focused on reducing the toxification of our oceans by industrial pollutants instead of idly watching the mercury levels rise in fish and the oceanic dead zones where nothing can live, grow. Would someone please remind the remaining schools of tuna of the reasons behind snubbing the Kyoto Treaty?

Have we been hoodwinked by the coal industry into believing this fossil fuel can ever be a clean energy solution for our future? Does clean coal technology really exist, or is it an oxymoron?

Here’s the Reality Coalition’s clean coal technology message.

©2009 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

If I purchase the chicken raw, then I clean it and trim it before freezing individually. The chicken we get already frozen has already been trimmed, etc, before being vacuum sealed. Those pieces I usually just toss in after unwrapping.

At our house, we try to only eat organic chicken for several reasons — antibiotics, non-vegetarian feed, and inhumane conditions among them. Ideally, we’d only eat chickens raised as described in The Omnivore’s Dilemma: on a grass-rotation farm where the hens play a role in the rejuvenation of the soil and eat their natural diet of grubs and worms. Since we don’t live near that kind of farm, we belong to a wonderful frozen food co-op that loads our freezer full of natural meats and poultry every six months or so.

When I must purchase chicken, my first choice is from Whole Foods or another natural grocery store. If it must be from the regular grocery store, I look for Redbird brand as Consumer Reports found the lowest levels of salmonella contamination in Redbird poultry products.

©2009 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

This is what I did with my turkey carcass a few days ago.

12-qt stockpot

I love having a 12-qt stockpot for times like these, when you need to fit a turkey carcas into a pot and cover it with water. Actually, I had my hubby break it in two pieces, but it would have fit intact, had I wanted it to. Really.

I added a peeled and quartered onion, a bag of baby carrots, a bay leaf, about 1/2 tsp. of peppercorns, sea salt, and a handful of parsley and thyme dug out from underneath the snow. I brought it to a boil and then simmered it for about 5 hours, until the stock was thicker and rich smelling, and the scraps of meat were falling off the bones.

At this point, I removed the big pieces to a bowl and strained the stock about 6 times into progressively finer strainers so that it was pretty clear, and then separated it into 3 smaller pots to cool and let the fat rise. Using a spoon, I strained off the fat and discarded it. Now I had stock.

I filled 3 ziptop freezer bags with 6 cups each of stock and lay them flat to freeze. This is a great freezing method for liquids because not only can you stack the bags easily in the freezer to save space, but the thin sheets thaw more quickly than solid blocks. I’ve already used one of them in my cabbage soup this week — recipe to come soon.

Then I put all of the turkey meat that came off the carcass back into the pot along with the carrots and onions, and ladled this “soup base” into 6-cup plastic food storage containers to freeze for later in the winter. Some cold and harried night, I’ll be able to toss this soup base into a pot to thaw, bring to a boil, and add noddles, corn, or cooked rice to make it more of a satisfying quick and easy meal. I could add a can of diced tomatoes, cut potatoes, and green chiles to make a turkey stew… The possibilities are endless.

I also froze a couple single-serving containers for a nourishing meal for the next cold or flu sufferer.

I’ve been looking into replacing all of my plastic container storage with Pyrex Storage and trying to figure out how

pyrex storage containers

I’m going to store all the items I’ll need — I like to freeze a lot of soups when I’m in the mood to cook, so that we can still eat well even on the nights when I’m not in the mood to cook. Food storage containers rotate through my kitchen and freezer constantly.

Sigh. I’ve gotten so used to the conveniences offered by plastic that I’m feeling resistant to changing even though I know the dangers of using plastic food storage containers. I wish the plastic manufacturers were concerned enough to make their products so that they didn’t leak BPAs into the foods.

©2009 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

The problem with stridor and croup is that they gets worse when the child panics, but not being able to breathe is so scary that panic comes with the territory. The cure has to be two-pronged: warm the airway and calm the panic.

I scooped my daughter up and flew into the bathroom where I ran the shower as hot as it would go and let the tub fill. I sat on the edge of the tub with her in my lap and closed the curtain around us to create a steam tent. The warm, humid air relaxed her throat and opened her airway. The lulling sound of the shower calmed her panic and allowed her to settle down and nestle into me. We stayed in the steam about 10 minutes, until the moist air relaxed her throat and she started to snooze.

Just the day before my son had asked me to turn on his humidifier for the winter and I had responded that as soon as I clean it out I’d turn it on. Of course, that hadn’t happened in time to prevent this episode.

As it happened, I had to replace the humidifier in my daughter’s room anyway as the old one was leaking. I really liked the one we had because it allows you to set the steam temp to cold or warm, and uses uv light to purify the water. I felt lucky to have found this Slant Fin GF-211D 2.4 Gallon Germ-Free Warm-Mist Humidifier for less than half what I had paid for the first one 4 years ago

If the steam bath doesn’t work to stop the stridor, the next option is to bundle up and go outside to breathe the cool air. This can help stop the attack, too.

©2009 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

I’m sad to learn that you must be operating on outdated dietary information if you limit yourself to so few carbs. Where is your body getting the fuel to run? The American Diabetes Association recommends a “whole foods” diet, not one in which you count carbs.

Limiting carbs is helpful when you’re eating processed foods which lack nutrition anyway. In the natural health world, we’ve seen diabetic patients be able to wean off of insulin by following a “Perfect Whole Foods” diet, as described in the book Recapture Your Health by Dr. Walt Stoll and Jan DeCourtney.

While my recipes are based on whole foods and can be used when following a perfect whole foods diet, some contain items which are fine for normal eaters (like white rice) but stray a bit from the absolutism needed for a diabetic eating regime (substitute for brown rice). My cookbook, Glorious One-Pot Meals: A Revolutionary New Quick and Healthy Approach to Dutch-Oven Cooking, is not directed at diabetics per se; they are just one of the groups of chronic disease sufferers — not mention regular people — that can benefit from eating a whole foods-based diet.

©2009 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.