What if I told you that there was a way to satisfy your sweet tooth without actually eating anything sweet? By changing what you think of as sweet, you can really accomplish this. Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese medicine both emphasize the need to include all six tastes in your daily diet, so we still want to acknowledge the importance of the sweet flavor, just not sugar itself. Here's a revolutionary way for you honor your sweet cravings without feeding the desire for sugar.
Empty Sweets vs. Full Sweets
Traditional Chinese Medicine makes a beautiful and radical distinction between empty sweets and full sweets. Empty sweets are treats containing any sweetener. I'm talking raw sugar, honey, maply syrup, agave, brown rice syrup, barley malt syrup. You get the picture. While some sweeteners are certainly healthier than others, the point is that they are still empty sweets. They are called "empty" because while they momentarily satisfy a sweet craving, they do nothing to nourish our digestion, so we are left wanting it more and more.
I think a lot of you can relate when I say it can be challenging to figure out what to make for dinner every night. Especially when we're aiming to make something really healthy and tasty, and for the whole family! Recently I got the brilliant idea to throw all my favorite super-nutritious beans and grains in the crockpot and call it chili. On top of natural corn chips and with lots of fun toppings, this awesome version of a tostada is high in protein, minerals and fiber, and is easy and quick to prepare. This nutrition-packed recipe is sure to become one of your favorites too.
Has your doctor ever asked you about where you've lived in order to detect if you've had some chemical exposure? Unlikely. Whether or not you've ever lived near Love Canal or Three Mile Island, it's possible that where you have lived has had an effect on your personal health. Call it the missing link, the overlooked and rarely asked about important factor when trying to figure out what has contributed to your current health situation. Now being called Geomedicine, this incredibly important common sense approach could help you unveil risk factors from your past and potential health issues to look out for.
In 2002, a large clinical trial called the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) reported that hormone therapy actually posed more health risks than benefits for women in the clinical trial. Of the 75% of women in the U.S. that experience hot flashes during menopause, most are still prescribed hormone replacement therapy. Besides the risks, the hot flashes usually return as soon as the drugs are stopped. What if there was a way to actually treat the root of the problem and restore the balance so that dependency on a drug wasn't necessary? Although I haven't personally gone through this phase of life yet, I've treated enough menopausal patients to know that acupuncture treatments and a diet according to Ayurveda can make a very hot woman feel cooler than ever.
Do you struggle to align your eating habits with your ideals? If you're like me, sometimes your taste buds take control and you find yourself eating something you know isn't the healthiest choice for your body and your spirit. In this post I want to address the timeless question of whether or not to be a vegetarian. At this moment in history where the environmental impact of every one of our choices, especially the 3-times-a-day ones, is so critical, it's important to examine how we choose what we eat. The decision affects our health, the environment, the economy, and global society. Personally, I am the kind of person who needs to gather a lot of information from many different traditions before I make big decisions. So I've compiled a surprising list of unusual theories about eating meat. If you're on the fence about becoming vegetarian or if you go back and forth, the following considerations and anecdotes may help you finally decide what is best for you.
In the 2007 National Health Interview Survey, 3.1 million Americans said they had used acupuncture in the past year. More and more people are doing it because they get relief from this ancient technique. Whether or not it makes sense to them, they trust this system of medicine that is said to be over 5000 years old. Now new groundbreaking research shows how acupuncture really works.
