Is the answer to the question "What should I eat?" common sense for you? It seems that the more “advanced” our society has become, the less connected we are to our intuition about food and eating. I see evidence of this when I give educational talks in the community. People say, “I’d like to eat more healthily, but I’m not sure what to do.” Fortunately, it’s not hard to reconnect with common sense about how to nourish yourself in a way that invites higher levels of wellness.
Step 1? Eat real food. Unfortunately, that’s not a joke. Our supermarkets teem with “edible non-food.” By “non-food” I mean: anything with ingredients that you can sooner imagine a scientist cooking up in a lab, rather than your great-grandmother cooking up in her kitchen.
Step 2? Eat high-quality whole food, close to the way nature grew it. Free yourself from obsessing about carbs, or your percentage intake of fat. Rather, eat a variety of foods (not including any you have a sensitivity to), as close to their whole and unrefined state as possible. For example, rather than skipping fats, choose healthy and natural fats. Choose brown rice or quinoa with your dinner, over flour-based (especially white flour) pastas or breads. Choose a high-quality protein source (such as beans, nuts, and seeds) at each meal. Or, when you do eat small quantities of animal-based foods, buy from a farmer’s market, a market like PCC or Whole Foods, or direct from a small organic pasturing operation. In short, find a source that raises their animals naturally, and helps you opt out of the industrialized farming methods that are dangerous to health – yours and the planet’s.
Step 3? Eat clean food. Speaking of industrialized farming, many of the most popular produce items are grown with synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers that not only deplete nutrients and harm the environment, but leave toxic residues on the food you eat. Email me and I’ll send you a handy wallet-card of the “Dirty Dozen” – the 12 most-contaminated conventionally grown produce items (i.e., that you want to switch to buying organic).
Educating on developing a nutritional program that works for you is what I do. To schedule an appointment, call 206.547.1980.
May you enjoy luminous good health,
Deborah Epstein, ND
For the past two months I’ve had some pretty strange symptoms… Tightness around head (like a headband on too tight), it never lasts more than 10mins. Frequent headaches (easily treated with one Excedrin), blurred vision and floating spots sometimes. Racing heart sometimes when sitting down, mostly after movement (walking to the bathroom can set it off) every morning I wake up my heart is racing. Weak and shaky all the time, sometimes my hands tremble. Upset stomach all the time(no vomiting). Sensation I am spinning at least twice a day, almost always happens while I’m sitting still and lasts from 5-30mins. Occasional quick shooting pains in head. Muscle spasms lasting 1-5 seconds (a few times a day, mostly in hands/arms ). In the past 48 hours a stinging burn in my upper right side comes and goes, only lasts a min or so. I’ve had blood tests, EKGs, urine samples all normal. Had an MRI done last year(suspected MS) showed one small lesion, doc said likely from migraines. If I take one Excedrin it helps with the headaches but not with any of my other symptoms. Also some more information that I left out which may be helpful, I am a 27yr old female. I do not drink caffeine, I have maybe one glass of white wine a week, I smoke half a pack of cigarettes a day, I do not use any recreational drugs. The vertigo and racing heart are very distressing, as well as the upset stomach my stomach has been so bad for the past few months that I have to force myself to eat most days, I’ve tried a 14 day treatment with Prilosec OTC with no success, I’ve also tried changing to a mostly alkaline diet also with no success. Most days I feel so ill that I can’t even leave my house.
Yes you r absolutely rite good diet + yoga = good helithdaet gives u energy and yoga makes ur fit and keeps u out of the diseases Hii,
Hi there,I have a one year old with eczema that seems prttey bad to me. I’m convinced that she is allergic to something I’m feeding her but am not good about going through the process of figuring that out. Do you do allergy testing? The PA at her Ped’s office just tells me to use cortisone which I really don’t want to use. I believe in curing the source not treating the symptoms.Thank you for your help.Erin
Hi Erin,
Your instincts are good. Eczema does very often show up as a symptom secondary to food sensitivities. A symptom is a sign that the body has a problem; the symptom itself is not the underlying problem, so I’m glad you didn’t settle for the PA’s (well-intentioned, I’m sure) recommendation to use cortisone cream. You’re right, that would be treating the symptom, not the source. Sometimes I use a blood test to try to suss out food sensitivities or allergens, and other times I use an Elimination/Rechallenge Diet. It depends on the particulars of the patient’s case and circusmstances. If you’re in Seattle, you can come in for a visit. If you’re not in Seattle, I can help point you to a naturopathic doctor in your area. Let me know. –Dr. Deborah