Grow Healthy
With Dr. Sally's
"Vital Signs" Blog
Cultures throughout Mesoamerica historically relied on corn as a staple for tamales and tortillas, polenta, and grits. Corn has been cultivated for thousands of years, providing nourishment to millions, especially once early farmers learned to consume it with potash, which releases niacin, the essential B vitamin in corn.
Salads are fast, flexible, full of flavor and fiber, and inexpensive. In fact, they’re the perfect way to save money and time, by incorporating elements of last night’s dinner into tomorrow’s lunch. As you’re cleaning up from dinner, just put a handful of greens in your glass lunch container and layer in the goodies from dinner with a shot of dressing on the side, and lunch is ready for tomorrow. Or maybe a picnic?
This light and refreshing salad is the perfect balance to a bowl of chicken tortilla soup or any hearty Mexican dish. The tangy pickled pink onions, creamy avocado, crisp pepitas (pumpkin seeds), and sweet tangerines blend perfectly with the lime-chimichurri dressing. Prep the pickled onions and chimichurri the day before and store in a tightly sealed container to enjoy the rest over the next week in many other dishes.
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.
January offers a new beginning; a time to clean up my act, grow more resilient and prepare for the coming year. There’s never been a better time to power up your immune system, The Good Food Way. Your energy, digestion, and immunity will thank you! So, if you’re ready to shake that “tired and toxic” feeling, then gift your system a reboot with my 5 Cues for a Clean January.
It’s been almost 85 years since Dr. Hans Selye, father of the “stress theory” defined stress as the “non-specific response of the body to change”. Given that we’re living in a world that is rapidly changing, a quick look at his work will help you better understand the stress response in your own body and develop better coping mechanisms.
Move over pumpkin, you’ve got some serious competition from your cousins in the squash family! Whether pureed in a soup, cubed then roasted, or baked and scooped from its own bowl, butternut squash is a versatile, delicious, and nutritious veggie that you’re going to love. This squash checks all the boxes for a nutrient-dense, fiber-rich, and low calorie food, with only 75 calories in 1 cup cooked!
One of the most exciting advances to emerge from the public’s heightened awareness of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity is the rediscovery of ancient, gluten-free, heirloom seeds and grains. Himalayan Tartary Buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) – a naturally gluten-free variety of buckwheat–-is an excellent example of such a rediscovery.
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”.
Imagine a seaside dinner of fresh fish nestled on a bed of colorful grilled vegetables drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil, and for those who imbibe, a glass of vino by the seashore? That’s the essence of the Mediterranean diet. While our travel there might be limited right now, we can still enjoy this style of eating, which is seriously delicious and relatively affordable (especially if you consider the cost-savings of disease prevention).
Are you looking for ways to use the last of your summer tomatoes? Try making ratatouille tonight! For me, tomatoes bring back the essence of summer… bright red and bursting with tangy juice. Tomatoes are loaded with super health benefits and there are so many ways to enjoy them: fresh off the vine, in salads, sauces, soups and ratatouille. At the end of this article is a featured recipe, using tomatoes and other garden-fresh veggies that I know you’re going to love!
Since IBS, or irritable bowel syndrome, affects nearly 45 million people in the United States chances are that you, or someone you know, struggles with gas, bloating, cramping, and diarrhea or constipation. The cause of IBS is multifactorial, meaning that a number of triggers may contribute to this dysfunction.
Learning to understand what all the numbers mean on a food label, the different nutrient parts, such as fat, saturated fat, sodium, etc, and ingredients, can be confusing. Calories, of course, are a big part of the nutrition label and, probably, is a number where most people stop. If it has less than a certain number of calories per serving that is how they decide between one box of cereal, or crackers, or chips, and the next.
