Great opportunity for me to expound on this way of eating and tell a client success story.

Simply stated, the components of this diet; less animal foods, more plant foods, and little or no dairy feed the good bacteria in your gut Microbiome.

Those bacteria are responsible for making dopamine, serotonin, and GABA. They all positively affect our moods. And keep our heads clear.

And when you eat more of these foods, you’ll have more of these bacteria and they’ll crowd out others.

The others are responsible for increasing inflammation, and often our cravings for fatty, salty, and sweet foods.

Feed the inflammatory bugs and that, as you might imagine, can get into a vicious cycle.

But what are whole food starches and are there more reasons to eat them?

Whole food starches are among the healthiest foods on the planet.

Most are fairly nutrient-dense.

But here’s the key, they’re Calorie-dilute.

That means you can eat lots of them and not be concerned about gaining weight as you fill your tummy. (An entire pound of potatoes has only 330 Calories! By way of comparison: that’s about the same calories as 4oz. of french fries; 1/4 the amount of potatoes. )

One result is that my clients can stop calorie and carb counting and still lose weight.

My client, Lorna is a great example. Lorna walks with crutches after surviving polio as a child. That makes exercise difficult for her. It also tends to make her less active than others. She spent her lifetime counting calories to maintain weight and going hungry to lose it.

After about 3 months of this approach to eating, Lorna has been able to lose almost 10 pounds. More importantly, she started to realize that she didn’t really need to count calories anymore. She felt satiated with the amount of food she was eating and was still losing weight. (Her name & story are being used with her permission.)

You see, an extra advantage to this way of eating is that thylakoids get all the way down to the colon before they are digested. (Thylakoids are good chemicals in unbroken cell walls, unique to plant foods.) So, they use more calories being digested AND their arrival undigested, in our colon signals to increase production of leptin. That decreases your appetite. (Thylakoids are broken down by grinding grains & overcooking vegetables.)

And here’s the REAL advantage: this means we eat less for as much as 12 or more hours after they arrive in our colon. So, eat oatmeal for breakfast and you’ll likely find yourself still wanting SOME, but less lunch. And eating far less at dinner and not snacking that evening.

So exactly what are whole food starches?

Beans of all types, whole (unpulverized) grains, and seeds like quinoa, brown rice, millet, barley, corn, sweet potatoes, and winter squash to name a few.

The one important thing to mention is minimizing the addition of fats that could quickly counteract the calorie saving. It can also feed the pro-inflammatory bugs.

You can use salsa, marina sauce, or a variety of other nutrient-dense & low calories toppings. Or try mixing your starches with other veggies, or balsamic vinegar. Creamy sauce made with a small amount of nuts, nutritional yeast, and herbs is another alternative.

The possibilities are endless.

Want the recipe for my quick creamy cashew sauce? Email me.

In my next blog, I’ll talk about the connection to more energy.

The post Improve Your Moods, Energy & Clarity with Your Fork. (part 1) appeared first on Dr Leslie K. Empowered Wellness.

Today, I want to tell you a couple of quick stories of people who made small changes that helped address chronic inflammation and how these changes changed their life. (All names have been changed.)

Beverly is a client that, despite being obese had an active lifestyle that including skiing, tennis and other sports. But throughout the years she had had numerous injuries that resulted in chronic pain. Still, she was committed to maintaining her lifestyle and finding a way to diminish pain & inflammation without the potential negative effects of medication. I suggested a program that included Ameo’s Frankincense Essential Oil, various supplements and detoxification & weight loss. Bev decided to go with the Frankincense alone. (She didn’t want to give up any of her favorite foods & was convinced she actually felt better at her current weight.) Amazingly, just that, by itself made enough of a change that, although she wasn’t able to ski or play tennis, she had less pain and was able to be more active than she had been in the recent past .

Melinda is a young adult (mid-20’s) that was having some health challenges as a result of her poor diet and lack of exercise throughout her teenage years and into young adulthood. Blood tests revealed she was pre-diabetic. She had constant digestive distress, pain in many joints, possible gall bladder issues and knew she had to make a change. Adding Zija’s Smartmix, AGX Digest and making better food choices made an incredible difference. In a matter of just a couple of months, her digestive and gall bladder issue were resolved, her blood tests returned to a healthy range, pain was gone, she had more energy & felt healthier and she lost about 20 lbs.

Michael was a morbidly obese middle aged man who was diabetic, had fatty liver disease and was in constant pain. He knew his very life hinged on the need to make some major changes. He added Zija’s Supermix, Premium Detox tea and more fresh fruits and veggies to his diet. He has eliminated junk food, most dairy and some meat. He has lost almost 60 lbs and is now able to be a little more active. His blood tests have shown improvement after just a few months. Michael still has a long way to go to undo the damage caused by years of toxicity and inflammation. At this writing, he is still, unfortunately, in some pain but as he continues to build muscle, lose fat and decrease inflammation, he is beginning to see more positive changes. He is optimistic that he will be able to resume many activities soon.

These 3 clients illustrate  how making changes that decrease inflammation can result in quick improvements in people’s lives and in their health profiles.

To learn more about any of the products mentioned here or Dr. Leslie’s Lifetime Wellness Coaching Services, contact us.

The post Chronic Inflammation: Stories of Change appeared first on Dr Leslie K. Empowered Wellness.

I was delighted with what I found. A literature search on PubMed revealed probably a hundred or more journal articles. Most of the studies were done in India which explains why we’ve heard little about it in the U.S.  With 46 different antioxidants, 36 different anti inflammatories, 20 amino acids (including all 9 essential ones) and lots more, it’s no surprise that I found numerous studies that demonstrated it helps the immune system, has antibacterial and anti-parasitic capabilities, is anti-inflammatory, anti-neoplastic (kills cancer cells) and so many other qualities, I can’t possibly list them all. Which is why I’m including several graphics that show more.

Zija International markets this line of products and uses the seeds and fruit (the most potent parts) as well as the leaves of the Moringa tree. In the month or so I’ve been on the products I’ve noticed numerous positive changes including more energy, decreased pain, better digestion & elimination and better sleep. Others have had positive effects on numerous health issues; digestive issues, diabetes, and all types of arthritis to name a few; along with using the products to assist in significant weight loss.

Zija has products that can enhance almost every lifestyle and condition: Start your day with the daily nutrition of Supermix (contains the highest concentration of Moringa), Smartmix (combines Moringa with pre-biotics and more to feed gut flora and enhance relaxation), or XM-Energy (combines several energy enhancing and natural appetite suppressing herbs). For many, that may be all you need. But if you’re an athlete or you’re trying to lose weight, there are a number of other products that can help you achieve your goals. In addition, Zija has a new line of clinical grade essential oils and the Moringa based skin care line, Gen-M, offer health enhancing and anti-aging for all.  “Drink Life In” 

If you’d like to get a sample or learn more about the business possibilities with Zija, please contact me.

The post Moringa Olifera – ‘New’ High Potency Superfood appeared first on Dr Leslie K. Empowered Wellness.

Some people were upset, confused and maybe even a little bit frightened recently when an article suggested that multi-vitamins don’t have the power, for the most part to prevent chronic diseases. Today, I’ll take a closer look at that: The study was published in the Annuals of Internal Medicine late in 2013 and it added to a list of several other articles that drew similar conclusions.

As our knowledge of nutrition has increased throughout the years, we’ve come to realize that there are far more essential nutrients than the 13 vitamins that were discovered over 100 years ago. Why should we believe any group of things we discovered from 1902-1937 is or could be complete?

Yet, unfortunately the myth continues, perhaps in part because we haven’t adopted a single-letter recognition for most other essential nutrients . Further, it’s hard to qualify what is essential and what isn’t. It’s obvious if someone gets Beri-beri or Scurvy they are missing an essential nutrient, but other nutritional deficiencies may not yield as obvious of a response and may take much longer to become visible. Yet it doesn’t make the substance any less essential.

Another basic fact is that we now also understand that most diseases and conditions are multi-factorial so the lack of one or several nutrients alone is not likely to cause anything. Cardio-vascular disease, for example usually involves a combination of poor eating habits, lack of consistent exercise, increased stress, being over-weight or obese, having high blood pressure, genetics, high cholesterol, smoking and more; not any ONE of these is mandatory for the condition and a lack of several doesn’t necessarily absolve one from the danger either.

All this to say, the basic fact remains that our bodies require whole real food, with its thousands of nutrients,  even IF we don’t understand what each molecule in that food does. And maybe that’s the entire point: part of the fault lies in the Western Society’s desire to break things down into components (deductive reasoning) and pretend that the whole is nothing more than the sum of its parts as if we really had the capacity to analyze all of the parts. “The whole may be equal to the sum of its parts but it is never equal to just some of its parts,” a mentor of mine used to note.

We now know that there are literally thousands of nutrients in food and our bodies require ALL of them. For example, there are almost 10,000 nutrients that have been discovered in the apple. Here’s an analogy: let’s say that the apple was a 10,000 piece jig-saw puzzle and you were going to put it together (essentially what your body does) where would you start? If you’re like most people, you start with the known quantity; the corners and edges. Our known quantity in the nutrition world are the vitamins & minerals; easy to find, we know what they do, etc. But just like the puzzle is more than the edges, our nutritional requirements are more than just the vitamins. Now here’s another part ‘part of the puzzle’: What if I took away the last 500 pieces when you just about finished with the puzzle but gave you an extra 10,000 corners and edges to ‘try to make up the difference’? You can begin to see what a hard time your body has in utilizing these nutrients to produce optimal health.

This is why when I choose a supplement, I choose a whole food one, like Juice Plus+; a supplement made from fresh fruits & veggies without additional isolated nutrients. How do you know the difference? Check the label, does it have a “Supplement Facts” label like vitamins or does it have a “Nutrition Facts” label like food? Many/most green powders also have a nutrition label.

So in conclusion, it’s easy to see why the addition of 20-40 nutrients makes little or no difference and may actually make the body work harder to produce what it really needs to be healthy. The more we return to relying on basic whole food, the healthier we will be. If I can provide you with further guidance, please contact me.

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