When I was a little girl, I used to “help” my Grandma Rosie pickle cucumbers, green tomatoes, and even garlic, which sometimes developed an interesting blue color as it fermented in the pickling juice. We loved her homemade pickles, and we still do. This post is also a shoutout to longstanding and devoted YHIOYP reader Joe G, who absolutely loves Grandma Rosie’s pickles and has made them on many occasions since I first wrote about them.
Category Archives: Nutrition
Self-Care Resolutions
Late last year I had an interview with a major news network on the topic of New Years’ Resolutions. I decided not to talk about the popular though self-defeating goals that are nearly impossible to sustain and end up making people feel badly about themselves and their efforts. I didn’t discuss limiting calories, denying yourself things that bring you joy, joining a gym, or signing up for a yoga class. Instead I decided to talk about being kind to yourself. Continue reading
Commercial Salad Dressings Are Not What You Think
Many, if not most, commercial salad dressings drown your fresh, delicious, nourishing vegetables in water and corn syrup. These products are not food, and they do not nourish you. Instead, they waste your money, and they markedly reduce the nutritional value of your salad. A while back I decided to stop at the supermarket to check the ingredient lists on four popular salad dressing brands. I think you will be very interested in what I discovered. Continue reading
A New Patient Gets a New Perspective
A few months ago I saw a new patient and she had a good deal in common with many other new patients I see. Even though she knew that her excess weight was doing her no good, and that it raised her risk of many chronic diseases, like breast cancer, for example, and diabetes and high blood pressure and colon cancer, she was unable to do anything about it. She was also really tired of doctors telling her that she should lose weight. Really, really tired. “Tell me something I don’t know,” she said to me. So I did. Continue reading
Back to the Basics
Lately I’ve been feeling a desire to return to talking about the basics. The question of how I personally began thinking about wellness, prevention and nutrition is as basic a place to start as any. And while it is very true that my own parents’ commitment to nourishing food, their common sense approach to life, and the fact that they lived their values for almost 45 years on their farm in the New Jersey’s Watchung Mountains set a sure foundation for my interest in fresh food and good health, today’s post is the story of how I made these passions my own. Continue reading
Whole, Intact Carbohydrates
I’ve been thinking about the fact that carbohydrate virtually never grows in nature without the fiber attached. Think about meadows, gardens, and orchards — all the vegetables, beans, fruit, and grains that grow in these places grow with their fiber matrix intact.
Why is flour that’s been stripped of its fiber and germ called “refined?” What’s refined about flour? If you look up “refined” in the dictionary you discover that to refine is to remove the course impurities. And that got me thinking.
Why would anyone want to imply that the oil-rich germ and fiber-rich bran are coarse impurities? Continue reading
The Illusion of Variety
Like many people who have been holed up in their homes for the past 15 months or so, this past week I entered a supermarket for the first time in more than a year. Omg. I left with one package of granola bites (treat), one cabbage (food), two kinds of beer (treat), and tonic water (treat–Fever Tree, the best!). Hopefully, I’ll do better next time. The whole experience got me thinking once again about what a supermarket really is, and I decided to share something I first posted a very long time ago. Continue reading
Being Kind to Yourself: A Basic Approach
A while ago, I was having a conversation with my friend Henry. He’s a doc, too, and we enjoy spending time together and talking about practicing medicine, taking care of patients, what it’s like, what we learn from it, and how we can do better. I am very grateful for Henry, and for the fact that we have been having this conversation for almost 25 years. It just so happens that Henry is in quarantine right now, so he’s on my mind. He’s fine in case you’re wondering, just being cautious. Continue reading
Fun is Fine, It’s Just Not Food
There is a very big difference between nutrition and entertainment. Food is nourishing. It’s what goes into our mouths when we choose stuff that’s loaded with fiber and color, like vegetables and beans, nuts, fruits, seeds, and whole grains. Fun, on the other hand, is nothing like food. Fun (which often goes by interesting names like “junk food” or “fast food” or “processed food”) is made with products like white flour, white rice, corn syrup, corn starch, commodity oils (soy, corn, cottonseed) and, of course, sugar, which you tend to find in items that are ultraprocessed. Food nourishes you. Fun entertains you. Sometimes you feel like a little entertainment. That’s fine. Go ahead and enjoy. But it doesn’t go in the plus category. It’s just for fun. Continue reading
Complementary Colors: Nourishing Yourself from the Inside Out (with recipe)
One thing you may not know about me is that one of my casual hobbies is interior decorating. I’ve picked out paint colors for my friends, rearranged their furniture, and weighed in on frame choices, picture positioning, and all kinds of related activities. Have you ever heard of decorating with complementary colors? Have you ever even heard of complementary colors? It’s when you choose two colors from opposite sides of the color wheel, like purple and yellow, orange and blue, or red and green. They usually clash just a little bit, which confers added visual interest. Here are some examples: A pink pillow that makes a pale green couch really SING! Or a wrapped bunch of lavender stalks in a pale yellow vase on a lemon-yellow tablecloth strewn with tiny purple violets. Or a ceramic bowl painted in stripes of turquoise and orange. And that brings me to sweet potatoes and kale. Continue reading