Cooking & Home

Many good things happen for the body as well as the mind when we are physically active. Most people see weight loss as the main reason for exercising, but that is only one of the many benefits. Physical activity fires up our metabolism. It allows all processes in the body...

As with most things in life —and especially around food and health—I advocate balance. I do not believe in taking extreme measures. When it comes to cleansing the body from the inside out, I am not in favor of “fasting,” be it a water fast, a juice fast or a...

Legumes – a group that includes beans, peas and lentils, as well as peanuts – are a wonderful and inexpensive source of high-quality nutrition and nourishment. They are packed with fiber, complex carbohydrates, B vitamins, calcium and iron. Legumes are the most complete source of plant-based protein, offering grounding and...

I believe that Awareness is the number-one ingredient for a healthy and happy body and life. I am therefore spelling it with a capital A. Health is so much more than the absence of disease. It means bursting with vitality, being full of life force, radiating positive vibrations and having...

Last month I wrote about the role fat plays in our bodies and how fat in our meals is actually helpful in losing weight. Today we will look at non-food items that can be helpful for weight loss. Awareness Bring awareness to everything food-related. So many of us rush to...

A Different Approach to Weight Loss Last month I wrote about dieting and why extreme diets create a state of stress in the body. Under stress, our body holds onto fat and does not release it to be burned for energy. Let’s look at other factors that influence our body’s...

Eating at Restaurants One big difference between a home-cooked meal and a restaurant meal is that at a restaurant, you are giving up control over your food. You no longer know where the food came from, how fresh it is, how much salt or spice has been added or what...

There are many ways to think about food. Being mindful of what we eat enables us both to enhance our enjoyment and to make the most beneficial food choices. In Energetics of Food: Encounters With Your Most Intimate Relationships, Steve Gagné describes how each food has its own particular character...

Last month I wrote about the benefits of oils and fats and the three different building blocks of oils, which determine whether an oil can be considered saturated and very stable (can be used for frying at high temperatures), mono-unsaturated or fairly stable (can be used for cooking, baking and...

Fats and oils have been the subject of misunderstandings, misleading recommendations and hype for some time. The cholesterol scare has us thinking that animal fats are bad for us, that saturated fats are bad for us, that fat in general is bad for us. These claims are untrue. Many weight-conscious...