As you likely know, some of the most coveted resources in our 10 month immersion program—Full Body Systems—are the Done-4-You Protocols. While I’ll repeatedly remind you that there really are no formulas—as each case is unique and our job is to determine why those symptoms are occurring—it’s also important to know where to start when […]

Let’s face it, when it comes to health there’s an over-abundance of confusing information. Just within the last few days I’ve had multiple conversations with people clearly stumped by conflicting opinions: Does the radiation fallout pose any danger for us in the United States? Is flouride a toxin or a heroic agent that thwarts tooth decay? And then, there’s always the puzzle about cholesterol. Good? Bad? What’s too high? Is there a too low?

Sauerkraut, along with other fermented foods such as kimchi, pickles, kefir, miso and more, have been staples of the human diet throughout time. Without knowing it, our ancestors were eating to shift their microbiome, and therefore their health, for the better. They ate for survival and protection. And these fermented foods helped to bolster the population of their internal bacteria to best serve their ability to ward off infection and disease. Many of us would benefit from the same. Eating kraut regularly is one way to tune in to your internal “medicine” cabinet!

When was the last time you did a gut check? Maybe you have no digestive symptoms, so you worry instead about your brain fog, fatigue, skin issues, blood sugar or diagnosed autoimmune condition—bypassing the all important connection between the GI tract and every single sign or symptom that irks you. (Yes, that connection exists and it’s strong!) Maybe you think you’ve got that gut thing covered; you’ve been there and done that (“yeah, yeah, I healed my gut last year”). We hear that one a lot in the Alliance Clinic! Yet I want to share with you what I’ve found for myself and my own health (Hashimoto’s, brain, hormone, anti-aging and more)…

If you've been with me through the past month or so, you know that I've made our summertime communications all about loving our guts with some digestive superfoods near and dear to my core. I've been sharing ideas, ingredients and recipes that not only enliven your seasonal menu, but also support the organ system that so often begs for our attention. Did you know that in Chinese medicine summer is the month of the small intestine? It's the perfect time to bring in some special foods that do double-duty to nourish your insides while tickling your taste buds. And, yeah, it's also a good time for ice cream! Can you guess where we're going with this?

What I see, time and time again for the Functional Nutrition Alliance clients and customers is that when these connections are made, when there’s finally a reason why a particular sign or symptom is not being addressed by a standard treatment, that it brings relief, insight and the freedom to find a more clear path toward their unique recovery. I want to help you make these important connections too. And today I want to help you connect your thyroid to…your stomach! That’s right, the way to your thyroid health (or one way anyway) is through your stomach. Let’s consider just a couple of reasons why this may be so...

Lately, I’ve been obsessed with chewing. It’s the thought of chewing that’s got my attention, not the practice. The practice is what I’m hoping to inspire today—in myself, and hopefully in you too. I often say that ‘we’re not just what we eat, but how our body processes what we eat’. In this way, we are what we can digest, absorb and utilize. We are, in part, the health of our organs and body systems. It’s curious to me how we can overlook the importance of the many chemical reactions in our bodies and particularly in our digestive systems. There are those that are triggered by the food choices we make, and there are those affected by the strength and efficiencies of our organs...

For the past few weeks we’ve been on a mission…jotting down everything relevant in our trusty FMP journal pages. From food, to poop, to mood, I’ve been tracking during our Food/Mood/Poop Challenge and I hope you have been, too. But I hear your gears churning over there, asking now what? you’ve tracked your food from beets to buckwheat to bone broth… you’ve kept tabs on your poop from frequent to fatty to number 5 on the Bristol chart… you’ve noted your mood from mellow to migraines to muscle aches… Now, it’s time to get out your detective hat, slip it on your noggin, and tap into the tools you have at the tips of your fingers.

For a couple of weeks we've been looking at the evidence… …the evidence of how your body is doing, as revealed in the simple details of your food (intake) and your poop (output). Our Food/Mood/Poop Challenge has raised great questions, if not an eyebrow or two! Documenting your food is easy. Eat it. Write it down! Reporting on your poop isn't so hard, once you remember to look before you flush.

Earlier this week I invited you to join me for a challenge. . . A FOOD, MOOD, POOP TRACKING CHALLENGE! So many wrote to say "I'm in!' over on the Replenish PDX Facebook page. And it's not to late to join the tracking fun. But, let's face it, tracking what we eat isn't always fun, right? Many of us (myself included), have negative associations with logging food for calories or self-discipline; years spent restricting and judging or evaluating each morsel ingested. This challenge is about so much more.