Grow Healthy
With Dr. Sally's
"Vital Signs" Blog
It seems everyone has their favorite recipe for deviled eggs! But when you’re ready for something different, I hope you’ll consider my herb-kissed version. Rather than the more traditional tangy and sweet or hot and spicy, these deviled eggs are fragrant with fresh chives, dill and marjoram. While you could use dried herbs, fresh herbs bring a spring green, almost floral scent to these eggs.
Hippocrates was right when he made that statement almost 2,500 years ago – that’s well before we’d refined sugar, created processed “food” products, and added antibiotics and a slew of other toxins to our food! Every bite we eat passes through the twenty-plus feet of our digestive tract, which is lined by our delicate “inner skin”.
Yes, it’s been 10 years since my first “Dry January” and “ Whole 30”. And I’m doing them again this year. Trust me, it gets easier every time! Dry January, as in skipping alcohol the first month of the year, has a special appeal this trip around the sun. With the isolation of the pandemic, alcohol sales have skyrocketed, along with rates of anxiety and depression, lack of exercise, weight gain, and a LOT more screen time.
So why start a revolution? …Because a revolution is what it’s going to take for us to wake up, reclaim our health and prevent this epidemic of chronic disease that is claiming countless lives and bankrupting our country. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that 90% of healthcare dollars are spent treating a cluster of chronic (but preventable) conditions: heart disease and stroke, diabetes, dementia and cancer.
We’ve got Super Man and Super Girl, so why not be a Super Ager? It’s a term that was coined by UCSF researcher, Joel Kramer, PsyD, who has studied a set of seniors that defy the odds on aging. He’s been assessing the personality traits of those who thrive into their 80’s and beyond, and has found a consistent theme: a healthy aging mindset is a distinguishing factor. The subjects with sharp cognition and vitality stay engaged in projects, they volunteer and have close family ties.
We all know our health care system is broken. You can’t turn on the news without catching a debate on best how to fix it. The challenge is that we don’t really have a “health care” system: we have a “disease management system”. The U.S. spends more money per capita than any country, yet our disease burden is higher than in comparable countries.
Welcome to 2019! It’s so exciting to see that many of the practices I was trained in decades ago as a naturopathic physician are now not only becoming popular, but are also being validated. From elimination diets to intermittent fasting, this is the year to explore the science of fasting and eating clean and alcohol-free for a month.
