EWG 2015 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has just released their 2015 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce.  The guide includes a list of the Dirty Dozen, which are the top 12 fruits and vegetables that the EWG found to be the most pesticide residue contaminated, and the Clean Fifteen, which are the top 15 fruits and vegetables that the EWG found to be the least pesticide residue contaminated.
This guide is always an excellent resource when deciding which fruits and vegetables are the most important to buy as certified organic and which are less important.
The fruits and vegetables on the Dirty Dozen list this year include (in order from the more contaminated to the lesser contaminated, pesticide wise):  apples, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, grapes, celery, spinach, bell peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, and potatoes.
The EWG has also created a Dirty Dozen Plus category in the last few years to include foods that are found to frequently contain insecticides toxic to the central nervous system. This year the Dirty Dozen Plus includes hot peppers and leafy greens, such as kale and collard greens.
The fruits and vegetables on the Clean Fifteen list this year include (in order from the most 'clean' to less 'clean', pesticide wise):  avocados, sweet corn, pineapples, cabbage, sweet peas, onions, asparagus, mangoes, papaya, kiwi, eggplant, grapefruit, cantaloupe, cauliflower, and sweet potatoes.
To read the full report from EWG, see http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/index.php

Autism Spectrum Disorder and Metabolic Concerns

An article by Mumper and Bedell Cook in the February 2015 issue of the Natural Medicine Journal discusses how the understanding around autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is shifting from ASD being a purely brain based concern to one that involves a number of additional body systems including the digestive system and the immune system and as well as metabolic impairments.  
On a metabolic level, most people with ASD have impaired functioning of their methylation and transulfuration pathways.  This impacts the body in a number of different ways and can contribute to the various symptoms/concerns people with ASD experience.  
There are a number of different tests that can help determine if a person does have impaired methylation and transulfuration pathways including urinary organic acid testing and genetic/single nucleotide polymorphisms buccal swab testing.  
There are a number of nutrients that support healthy functioning of the methylation and transulfuration pathways and can make these metabolic impairments easier for the body to manage.  Some supplements to consider include:  B12,  folic acid, vitamin B6, coenzyme Q10.  The article stresses the importance of using the active form of each of these nutrients to ensure they are more easily and fully utilizable by the body.  The active form of B12 is methylcobalamin.  The active form of folic acid is 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolate (MTHF).  The active form of B6 is pyridoxyl-5-phosphate (P5P).  And the active form of coenzyme Q10 is ubiquinol.  

Website Update!

I have just had my website updated and the new version is now up and running!  My website is found at http://nurture-your-self.com .  The content is primarily the same although I have removed the current events page and the newsletter archive.  Even though I loved the newsletters I did, I haven't done one since 2004, so the page looked quite out of date.  This blog is now linked to the website and there is a link to my twitter account too.  Most excitingly, I have a new logo!  The curved line at the top of the logo represents the natural flow of our life.  The solid line at the bottom of the logo represents the steady foundation of health that naturopathic medicine helps us to build which can then support us in managing the flow of our life more easily.  The flowers growing from the natural flow are chamomile.  Chamomile is a simple and beautiful flower that grows easily and offers us calming, relaxing, and regenerative support on a number of different levels.  

End of the Cleanse!

Another January cleanse is drawing to a close for me - this month seemed to fly by very quickly this year!  Each of my cleanse suppers were simple and easy to make.  I also was able to have leftovers for supper 2 times per week which reduced the amount of cooking time/overwhelm.  I always had supper leftovers for lunch which also made it easier to manage through the extra work required during the cleanse.  I made hummus 3 times and had it as a snack and even as a light supper a few times after a late lunch.   Generally at the end of a cleanse, a person will slowly reintroduce each food they haven't eaten for the past month back into their diet in a separate 3 day block (only 1 food at a time) to determine if any of the foods cause an aggravation for them.  Because I have done the cleanse many times, I no longer do the food reintroduction, but it does serve as a great learning experience for people who are doing a cleanse for the first time.  In general, the cleanse has been a great experience again for me helping to start the year off in a positive and healthy direction.

Meditation and Mental Health

In the June 2013 issue of the Natural Medicine Journal, author Tina Kaczor discusses a study involving meditation and mental health.  There were 39 participants (average age 60.3 years old) that completed the 8 week study.  Each participant had mild depression and were caregivers to loved ones with dementia.  The intervention group (23 people) did 12 minutes daily of kundalini yoga based (kirtan kriya) meditation while the placebo group (16 people) listened each day to a 12 minute relaxation CD.   The intervention/meditation group were found to have significantly greater improvements in depression and their mental health at the end of the 8 week study.  This study highlights that meditation offers further support than just basic relaxation techniques.  I am currently reading a great book called Sit Like a Buddha by Lodro Rinzler.  It is a concise and clear manual on how to easily integrate meditation practice into our daily lives.  Having a daily meditation practice doesn't have to be complicated and it can offer great support for our overall mental health.  

Green Tea and Digestive Health

In the February 2013 issue of the Natural Medicine Journal, author Kaycie Rosen Grigel looks at the Shanghai Women's Health Study involving green tea consumption and digestive system related (including colon, esophageal, gall bladder, pancreatic, rectal, stomach) cancer risk.  Almost 70,000 women between the ages of 40-70 participated in this study.  The participants were divided into different categories based on their tea consumption and the primary tea consumed was green tea (88% of participants drank green tea only).  The regular tea drinkers were found to have a 17% lower risk of developing digestive system cancers than the participants who were not regular tea drinkers.   Participants who drank 2-3 cups per day had a 21% lower risk and the ones who were regular tea drinkers for 20 years or more had a 27% lower risk of developing all digestive system related cancers and a 29% lower risk of developing colon cancer specifically.  The information from this study provides additional great guidance around simple changes we can make in our diet to support our overall health.  

Infant Eczema and Maternal Dairy Intake

In the November 2013 issue of the Natural Medicine Journal, author Sarah Bedell Cook looks at a trial investigating infant eczema and maternal cow based dairy intake.  The breastfeeding mothers that participated in this trial all had a history of allergies (including food allergies, eczema, hives, asthma).  The infants were all exclusively breastfed and were monitored from birth to age 4 months.  Half of the mothers ate a diet that restricted dairy products (30 women) and the other half did not restrict their dairy intake (32 women).  At age 4 months, the incidence of eczema was significantly lower in the infants whose mothers restricted their dairy intake (only 2 infants developed eczema compared to 8 infants in the unrestricted dairy group).  Eczema is a relatively common concern for infants and this trial provides very helpful information around potential support for eczema management.