The Wrinkle-Free Diet

It’s been decades since my parents, Chef Ira and The Gardener, first coined a name for the way they eat. They called it the wrinkle-free diet. Though it started as a joke, an answer to the fact that they didn’t seem to be aging as quickly as their friends, it did not stay a joke for long. The magic of their wrinkle-free diet, it turns out, happens not on the surface, nor in the words themselves, but deep inside, through changes to the section of chromosomes called telomeres. Continue reading


Getting Out of Hot Water: Preventing Heart Attacks

Certain genes have been associated with an increased risk of strokes and heart attacks. Researchers have studied whether people with some of these genes can lower their risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) with dietary changes. They can. Continue reading


Every Little Bit Counts

I have some amazing news to share. A recent study published in the journal Diabetes Care observed a reduced risk of diabetes (type 2) in older women who walked just 1000 steps more every day. You can access those findings here. This week’s post might, at first glance, seem a little dry to you, but if you’ll stay with me for a couple of minutes, I think you’ll find an important observation here that may resonate deeply. It’s not about diabetes, or even walking for that matter. It’s about success. Continue reading



Research: One Cup of Broccoli at a Time

This past week I went to hear Dr. Mark Hyman speak to our medical students about functional medicine. My brain was spinning a mile a minute. That happens whenever I spend time thinking about actually preventing illness instead of chasing it. I channeled my energies by spending a good part of the time busily writing tweets to send out on my Twitter feed: Continue reading