They say this year’s flu epidemic is one of the worst in history. There is no need to run out and get the latest flu-shot. These have not been shown to be helpful, especially this year. Instead boost your system with loads of antioxidants and other healthy alternatives!

Approximately 60% of our immunity is within the gut. It’s time to clean up your digestive system with a diet of reduced sugar, meat, milk, chemicalized, artificial junk food! Load up on fiber rich foods like whole grains, green veggies and beans.

Having trouble digesting all the nutrients from you food? Think about a digestive enzyme to get all the minerals and vitamins that you might be consuming. As we age we lose the ability to digest our food. When this happens, our immunity may be compromised. Digestive enzymes are gentle and should be taken with most, if not all, meals. Individuals that use digestive enzymes will be getting more bang for their buck!

Got gas, diarrhea, constipation, loose stools, irregular movements, bloating? Then probiotics might be a simple way for you to boost your gut and your immunity.

Has the cold weather kept you inside, cuddled up under your covers? Brave the cold and enjoy some fresh air. The stale, dry air from our homes might be having an impact on your health. Strengthen your lungs by taking deep breaths in and out while enjoying a brisk walk at the beach on a cold yet sunny winter day! Keep dehumidifiers running all winter-long, especially at night while you are sleeping.

Speaking of sleep, ensure that you are getting a good amount of rest each night. Keep your room pitch black so that melatonin is produced (a hormone that will keep us young and so much more!) Try to fall asleep at a similar time each night and awake around the same time each morning. This consistency will help keep your internal body clock in sync and you will feel more awake throughout the day.

Drink plenty of fluid, especially water this time of year. It is easy to skip out on H20 when it is cold yet we need just as much water in the winter as the summer, spring and fall. Keep a pitcher at room temperature and try adding unsweetened cranberry juice, a lemon or rasberries to give it extra taste and pleasure.

Load up on antioxidant rich foods and consider taking extra Vitamin C, Zinc, Bioflavanoids, Vitamin D. Even think about a cleanse to detoxify waste and strengthen your core being.

There is just so much that can be done naturally to improve your immunity this winter. Try one item listed above or select your own and Go For It! Every week add a new item to your list and before you know it, you’ll be eating as much spinach as Popeye and feeling his strength too!

Who doesn’t want a healthy heart? Don’t neglect this vital organ. Take these simple do-it-yourself tips to heart:

1) Get your cholesterol count. Look at HDL, LDL and total cholesterol numbers. It is not about one component but instead, the full picture.

2) Calculate your waist/hip ratio: the higher the ratio, the greater your risk for heart disease.

3) Don’t let homocysteine accumulate, it’s toxic! Take supplements to convert homocysteine to non-toxic forms.

4) Increase your fiber intake: Fiber will bind to cholesterol in the intestines and excrete it.

5) Avoid hydrogenated oils and trans fat because these elevate cholesterol and are atherogenic! Throw out the margarine, cookies, crackers, baking products and vegetable shorting that contain these harmful ingredients.

6) Restrict sugar intake.

7) Choose lean protein, fish and vegetable proteins often. Organ meats, pork and processed meats are to be consumed rarely.

8) Move often! Get your heart rate kicking by partaking in aerobic excercise 3-5 times a week for 20-30 minutes at moderate intensity. Try a salsa class or hit the ski slopes!

9) Supplement with a multi-vitamin, fish oil, bioflavanoids, Pantethine, CoQ10, Carnitine, Vitamin C, Niacin, Magnesium and more! (note: It is not necessary to supplement with everything listed - an individualized protocol should be followed depending on your own personal situation).

10) Eat garlic and fenugreek. They both lower LDL and total cholesterol.

11) Donate blood to remove excess iron in the body — while at the same time giving love to someone in need!

12) Practice loving yourself-up! Nourish your body with positive messages. Wipe out negative self-talk and learn to love and accept yourself daily.

13) Build healthy relationships at work, in your family and with the people behind you at the supermarket checkout line. Make connections with others and learn to embrace life through the people you meet along your journey.

14) Tap for heart health using The Emotional Freedom Techniques. Download the free manual to learn this useful technique or hire an EFT practitioner like Alison Held to guide you toward personal freedom.

15) Practice the whole brain posture for heart health. This is an excellent position to eliminate stress, anger, resentment, forgiveness or any unhealthy emotions that might be limiting you from being your best-self. The whole brain posture is one of the most common Psych-k balances.

16) Hug yourself and others for a healthy heart. When you hug someone, make sure you are aligning your heart to their heart (many people hug the other way which can give a negative charge….change that negative to a positive!)

Did you know that approximately 60% of immunity is within our digestive system? That’s right, if you are constantly getting sick it might be due to poor gut health. This is not uncommon either. Due to our fast-paced lifestyle of eating on the go, snacking while standing, consuming large amounts of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup and refined carbohydrates, constant stress, and overuse and abuse of antibiotics we are hurting our gut all the time! (more…)

CoQ10 is a cardioprotective nutrient and plays a major role in energy production. Statin drugs (cholesterol lowering) have been shown to reduce the body’s levels of CoQ10 so anyone taking these should seek out a well absorbed CoQ10 supplement. As with many other nutrients, our levels of CoQ10 also lessen as we get older.

Taking CoQ10 regularly has been shown to increase cardiac function and lower angina episodes. CoQ10 may interact with something else you are already taking and comes in many different forms and dosages. It is best for your health to consult a health professional to make sure you are taking an appropriate dose and type and to ensure there will be no interactions which could cause more harm than good.

In general CoQ10 is a very safe and effective way to nourish your heart!

A hearty, delicious year-round soup. Miso, a fermented soy, and the seaweed wakame are also excellent for the immune system.

Ingredients:

1-2 inch strip of wakame rinsed and soaked 5 minutes in 1 cup water, until softened
1-2 cups thinly sliced vegetables of your choice, see note
4-5 teaspoons barley miso
2 scallions, finely chopped
4-5 cups spring water

Directions:

Chop soaked wakame and discard soaking water. Place water and wakame in a soup pot and bring to a boil. Add root and ground vegetables first and simmer gently for five minutes or until tender. Add leafy vegetables and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Remove about 1/2 cup of liquid from pot and dissolve miso in it. Return it to the pot. Reduce heat to very low, do not boil or simmer miso. Allow this to cook 2-3 minutes. Garnish with scallions and serve.

Variations:

Add cooked grains at the start of making the soup; add cubed organic tofu toward the end; season with 1/2 teaspoon of ginger juice; etc.

Notes:

Any combination of vegetables can be used in miso soup. Here are some classical combinations: onion-daikon; onion-carrot-shiitake mushroom-kale; onion-winter squash-cabbage.

* This recipe is taken from The Institute for Integrative Nutrition

Fiber, folate and magnesium are excellent for the heart. Try this delicious vegetarian lentil recipe which contains all three! This dish can be served as a side-dish or a meal in itself.
Vegetarian Lentils

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves minced garlic
5 shitake mushrooms, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup pearl barley
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups water
3/4 cup lentils

Directions:

Saute the onion in olive oil until golden in color. Add the garlic and mushrooms and stir thoroughly. Add the barley and cumin and stir again. Add lemon juice, salt, pepper and then the water and lentils. Cover and cook slowly for approximately 45 minutes. Add more water if necessary.

Here in Connecticut, everyone is preparing for an evening filled with chicken wings, Budweiser beer and cheese whiz!

Personally, I like watching the super bowl to check out the new advertisements and see the half-time show (this years guest is one of my favorites, Tom Petty!) The other night when I phoned my friend in UT she didn’t know much about the event. To some, it’s just another sporting event. But to many, it is THE game!

For those that are more into the food than the game, you will enjoy tuning in to see how the Super Foods compete against the Junk Food.

I am certain there will be loads of junk food at the party I will be attending tonight. In these circumstances I always bring a healthy, fun dish so that there will be something there for me to indulge in.

Here are some tips for those of you that are trying to figure out what to bring tonight:

• Organic Blue Corn Chips with Salsa
• Homemade popcorn drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and sea salt
• Cut up veggies with a veggie hummus
• Shrimp with cocktail sauce
• Quinoa crackers with goat cheese
• A large salad filled with grilled chicken and all the fixins
• Organic turkey roll-ups using spelt wraps

Have a healthy filled Super Bowl!

Alison Held
Nutritional Consultant & Health Coach
www.healthfuldirection.com

Today is National Wear Red Day! By wearing red you will show your support in the fight against heart disease. Approximately one in four women get heart disease (see today’s NIH press release that shows a decline to the previous 1 in 3) - staggering statistics! Why are these numbers so high - is it diet? lifestyle? Or is there something more to it than this?

The Standard American Diet is truly SAD. Most of us consume artificial, chemical, hormone-filled foods. The doctors tell us to eat less fat and sugar to reduce our risk of heart disease and this is not bad advice! The problem is that education is lacking and truthful facts get twisted by the media, food industry and corporate giants. Less fat becomes fat-free and less sugar somehow manifests itself into aspartame and splenda!

On today’s Go Red website there are several recipes featured. A picture of a delicious berry tart is displayed that makes me think, “Oh wow, if I’m trying to prevent heart disease I can have a big piece of that every night & it will help? Cool!” When I click through for the full ingredient list I see what is wrong with this picture!

The Berry Topped Pudding Pie contains a fat-free and sugar-free pudding mix, fat-free milk, fat-free frozen whipped topping, 1/2 a cup of sugar, and some other ingredients thrown into the mix. Talk about major deprivation when it comes to fat! Yet sugar is obviously o.k. for heart disease because I’m getting not only the 1/2 cup of white table sugar but also plenty of sugar in the fat free items (after all, those fat-free items need something added to make our taste buds happy!). I do not see much mention of whole, clean foods….I ponder why?

This campaign has plenty of excellent education, the reader just must be savvy enough to throw out the nonsense and embrace the quality material. For instance, getting your cholesterol in check and incorporating daily activity are some excellent steps in prevention. Evidence-based facts are presented through research articles and you can even take their heart health check-up.

Don’t have any red to wear (or you’re already dressed for the day!)? Carolyn Leber Public Relations shares a great alternative - light a red candle to show your support in this cause.

Much research (which I did not find on the Go Red site?) supports the fact that negative emotions will increase the risk of heart disease. When our heart “aches” it is not just because of poor food, environmental toxins, genetics or lack of movement. Our emotional state surely is connected to our physical body and this is just not fancy woo-woo speaking. Stress (that can come up due to lack of finances, relationship problems, career obstacles, etc) will impact our physical body. In addition, the thoughts that come up around these events may have an even greater impact.

Take all this to heart! Yes - improve your diet, get to know your family health history, exercise regularly, improve your cholesterol ratios, etc. But also change your thought patterns (two of my favorite techniques that I use with clients are EFT and Psych-K) so your outlook is bright and there is less impact on your physical body when negative things happen. Learn how to relax, take deep breathes and listen to the beating of your heart. Go Red - if you love it, it will love you back!

Alison Held
Nutritional Consultant & Health Coach
Healthful Direction