I’m just guessing that two thirds of you will resolve to get healthy and/or lose weight this New Year.  If that’s not you, please feel free to pass this article along to two thirds of your closest friends.

These tips fall into three categories: tips for healthy eating, tips for an effective exercise program, and tips for discipline.

Tips for Healthy Eating: 

1. Choose foods that will spoil, and eat them before they do.  Foods without a lot of preservatives most likely haven’t been processed very much.
2. If you must choose something that has been pre-packaged, read labels.  If there are any added sugars, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs), or ingredients you don’t recognize on the list, don’t eat it.
3. Eat a rainbow.  Get as many naturally occurring colors in there as you can.  This will most likely cause you to consume the daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables without even trying.
4. Have some protein with every meal, including every snack.  This will help to keep blood sugar stable.  Protein doesn’t necessarily mean meat; there are lots of forms, including beans, soy, yogurt, cheese, nuts, quinoa, etc.
5. If organic food is available and affordable, buy it.  Organic animal products are produced from animals fed a natural diet, and therefore the products they produce contain the proper, anti-inflammatory balance of fats (higher omega 3 and lower omega 6).  Additionally, organic foods in general are prepared without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or preservatives.  For a list of those fruits and veggies that should be purchased organically (the “Dirty Dozen”) and those for which organic is less important (the “Clean 15”), see this list by the Environmental Working Group.
6. Drink at least half your body weight in ounces of water every day.

Tips for an Effective Exercise Program: (disclaimer: these are general suggestions, assuming you have no preexisting health conditions!  Please make sure you check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program.)

1. Engage in aerobic exercise (walking, jogging, swimming, bicycling, Elliptical machines, aerobics classes, rowing machine) at 60-80% of your maximum heart rate (calculate it here) for at least 20 minutes, four times per week.
2. Engage in a strength training program for at least 15 minutes, at least three times per week.  This should alternate upper and lower body.  If you don’t have access to a gym already, you should probably join one, assuming you do not already know how to use your own body weight as resistance.  For more information, see here.
3. Stretch regularly before and after you exercise to increase range of motion, coordination, decrease injury and stress-induced muscle tension.  Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates, or similar regimens would be a great addition to your workout routine.

Tips for Discipline: 

1. Pick a specific goal.  Goals that can’t be measured can’t be attained.  You need to be able to determine whether you’ve reached your goals or not.
2. Ask someone to help you!  It’s much easier to lose weight and get in shape with a friend.
3. MEASURE MEASURE MEASURE! You must measure your progress, because when you see that you have progressed, you’ll be motivated to keep going.
4. Measure your MOOD too.  Each day, write about how your day went, and include a rating on your mood.  Exercise releases natural endorphins, and is a very effective treatment for mild forms of depression.  Eating right keeps your blood sugar stable, and can dramatically improve both your energy and your attitude.
5. Choose activities (and foods) you enjoy.  You’re much more likely to incorporate exercise and healthy eating into a way of life if you like it!  There are lots of healthy cookbooks out there with which you can experiment, and plenty of different activities to choose from.
6. Don’t overdo it.  It’s possible to burn out if you try to do too much, too fast.  Make gradual changes to your previous routine, and be realistic with your goals.

For the month of January, I will be offering a Health and Wellness package at 60% off normal visit prices that includes a personalized plan to improve your weight, your cholesterol, your blood pressure, and your overall health in 2013.  Check my website at www.drlaurendeville.com beginning January 2, 2013 for more details!

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine. To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

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There are several types of psoriasis, but most commonly psoriasis occurs with plaque-like lesions on extensor surfaces (such as elbows and knees).  It is autoimmune in the sense that antibodies against the layers of the skin activate an immune response, which causes those skin cells to die sooner than they should, creating plaques of dead skin in the first place.

Traditional Treatment for Psoriasis: 

For this reason, traditional treatments often include immune suppressants (steroids), as well as topical and oral Vitamin D analogues or UV light stimulation (since this is what produces Vitamin D in the skin.)  Other treatments include retinoids (Vitamin A analogues), which block the proliferation of skin cells.

I am not strictly against most of these topical treatments, aside from the fact that steroids thin the skin, and none of them deal with the root cause.  Sometimes treating symptoms is appropriate, but I try to deal with the underlying problem whenever possible.

Naturopathic Treatment for Psoriasis: 

Although the triggers are many (including several prescription medications, physical trauma, alcohol and smoking), most skin problems are in some way linked to the gut.

In this case, psoriasis is often linked with poor digestion of proteins (possibly due to gut inflammation, possibly food allergies, or both), overgrowth of gut flora (dysbiosis), poor liver detoxification, and nutritional deficiencies.  Since 80% of your immune system resides in your gut, this makes sense… clean up the gut, and you can limit a large portion of immune system dysfunction.

Another angle involves adrenal support.  Two of the hormones produced by the adrenals (cortisol and DHEA) serve (in part) opposite functions from one another – the former favors a breakdown process (catabolism), while the latter favors a build-up process (anabolism).   Supporting the adrenals helps to balance this ratio, which is important, since psoriasis is a catabolic (breakdown) process.

Vitamin D is one nutrient in which quite a few of my patients are deficient (even in AZ!), and this will certainly be a part of a psoriasis protocol.  Vitamin D is also a great support to the immune system, and other immune calming (but not suppressive) measures may be appropriate too.

And, when necessary, there are also several herbs (and higher dose nutrients) that have similar mechanisms of action to the prescription meds listed above.  These may be necessary to control symptoms while the underlying cause(s) are addressed.

Skin problems can be emotionally draining in addition to everything else.  There are alternative approaches.  If you’re interested in learning more, follow the links below.

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine. To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

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Heartburn is so called because your esophagus runs right past your heart (to the midline of course), and that’s where the pain is.  It’s a burning sensation and tends to be worse at night (when you’re lying down).  It has a sour or bitter taste, sometimes a sore throat and a chronic cough, and occasionally it can be associated with asthma.

Usually it can be diagnosed from clinical history, but there are a few other diagnostic measures – imaging mostly – which can potentially determine whether there is a structural cause (such as a narrow stomach opening – called pyloric stenosis – or stomach protrusion through the diaphragm – called a hiatal hernia).  But once structural causes are ruled out, other accepted causes include spicy or acidic foods (such as coffee, tea, orange juice or citrus in general, milk, alcohol, or nicotine), high stomach acid, or anything that might cause upward pressure, such as pregnancy or plain old extra weight.

Naturopathic docs will add a few more causes to that list.  Notably these causes include food allergies, imbalance of gut flora, and even too little stomach acid (hypochlorhydria).

The opening between the esophagus and the stomach (lower esophageal sphincter) is pH sensitive, and the acidity of the stomach causes it to close.  Too little stomach acid can prevent the sphincter from closing, which means it’s wide open so that the acid that is present in the stomach is free to splash back up into the esophagus – causing heartburn.  So while acid blockers may improve the symptom (less acid left to enter the esophagus in the first place), if this is the cause it won’t deal with the problem, and may even make it worse.

Traditional Treatment for GERD: 

• Not surprisingly, antacids (aluminum-based, magnesium-based, and calcium carbonate-based) cause other gut disturbances, such as constipation, diarrhea, belching, bloating, and flatulence.  This makes sense, since the acid in your stomach is one of several steps to breaking down your food properly – and food that has not been broken down properly will end up being fermented by the bacteria in your gut.
• H2 Blockers (Zantac, Tagamet, Axid) block around 70% of acid production.  Because acid is necessary to protect against ingested bacteria, it can lead to increased risk of infection (gastroenteritis).
• Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs, such as Nexium or Prilosec) block up to 99% stomach acid secretion, and in addition to the above, they can lead to abdominal pain, diarrhea, and malabsorption (again, not surprisingly, since they are inhibiting a step in digestion), atrophy of the stomach lining itself (atrophic gastritis, which can predispose to gastric cancer), and by extension they can cause bone loss (due to lack of calcium absorption) and anemia (due to lack of Vitamin B12 absorption).

Just a note of caution: make sure if you decide to change or stop medications of any kind, you consult your doctor first.  Some of these need to be tapered and should not be stopped abruptly.

Naturopathic Treatment for GERD:

I am assuming that the workup for any structural causes has been done.  If all is negative, then -

• We find and eliminate the food sensitivity (and it may or may not be one of the triggers listed above.  Quite often it is not).
• If extra weight is a contributing factor, then weight loss is in order too, of course.
• Meanwhile we soothe the esophagus, repopulate the gut, and encourage acid production.  (Yes, you read that right.)
• Eventually we’ll taper off the meds, and if you’ve been on them for awhile we’ll address any deficiencies that may have resulted from their use.

You don’t have to just live with reflux, and you don’t have to live on the meds for them either.  Want more info?  Click the links below.

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine. To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

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We’ve probably all heard that acne can be aggravated by chocolate, right?  (Apparently there’s evidence for that on both sides of the fence, just fyi.)

What you may not know, though, is that there is substantial evidence that acne is aggravated by a so-called “Western Diet” – high in processed carbohydrates, sugar, and trans fats.  Why is this?

What Causes Acne

Skin and hair both are mostly comprised of a protein called keratin.  When keratin cells multiply, they can cause the hair follicle in the skin (pore) to narrow, and then sebum (the oil your skin naturally produces, made of lipids - fats – and cell fragments) builds up in the blocked follicle.  The bacteria so often associated with acne (Propionibacterium acnes) live off that sebum, and this sets off an inflammatory cascade.

The Thought Process Behind Traditional Treatments

Traditional treatments focus on killing the bacteria (which can control symptoms, but misses the root cause, since the bacteria associated with acne also exists in clear-skinned individuals), decreasing inflammation (steroids), changing the sebum chemistry and quantity (retinoids and hormone-based treatments), and preventing the keratin cells from multiplying in the first place (again, these are the retinoids, like Accutane and isotretinoin).

Are We Missing Something?

But it turns out that indigenous populations don’t get acne.  And as non-Western populations increasingly adopt Western diets, their incidence of acne concurrently increases as well.

So bacteria doesn’t seem to be the cause – Propionibacterium acnes can be present with or without acne vulgaris.  It’s just an organism that takes advantage of an opportunity to invade and infect when one is presented to it.  (We call this an opportunistic organism.)

However, we do know at least in part that sebum production and chemistry is the product of our environments.  Good food, clean air and water, lower stress, getting enough sleep, proper digestion, and avoiding environmental pollutants all seem to contribute to lowering sebum production and making it less attractive to the bacteria that invariably lurks about.  Specifically, low glycemic index (i.e. low sugar), high protein diets seem to improve sebum quality and discourage infection.

Now, it is the case that some people can eat crap and maintain perfect skin, while others eat very well and still have trouble (at which point the treatment must be more involved).  This seems to be a function of a few things – among them, the way your body processes sugar.  Insulin spikes can lead to hormone byproducts that stimulate both increased activity of keratin cells and increased sebum production. Some people’s bodies are just better at processing high glycemic foods and regulating hormones than others, and for those, diet changes may not clear up the whole case (though they will certainly help).

Just another reason to EAT LESS CRAP and eat more real food.

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine. To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

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Genetic modification involves taking a gene from one organism, clipping it out of that organism’s genome (splicing it) and then inserting it into the genome of a different organism.

There’s a lot of debate about whether or not that’s a good idea.

Foods that are most commonly GM (Genetically Modified) include soybeans (94% of the soybeans in the US are GM), corn (88% in the US), cotton, canola (which is made from rapeseed), and alfalfa.  These foods are primarily engineered to be herbicide- and insect-resistant, so that they do not need as much pesticide applied to them as non-GM crops, and are resistant to herbicides.

Here’s the catch: there are no long-term human studies to determine safety of these crops, nor are there currently any being done.  This is because the FDA considers them to be essentially equivalent to their non-GM counterparts.  For that reason, GM foods are not required to be labeled.  Most likely, you consume them daily without realizing it, especially if you eat a lot of processed food products.

Despite the official consensus that GM foods are safe for consumption, though, there is cause for caution.

For the most part, GM foods contain a gene from an organism called Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, which, when expressed, produces a toxin called glyphosate.  This is the active ingredient in the insecticide called Roundup, which kills insects by poking holes in the gut lining.  According to the EPA, glyphosate is toxic to insects only and has no effect on humans or animals.  However, some data links glyphosate with birth defects, miscarriages, infertility, behavioral disorders, and even autism.

Even more compelling to me as a naturopathic doctor is the fact that since the 1996 introduction of GM corn and soy into the US, inflammatory gastrointestinal disorders have been on the rise.  Admittedly this is only a correlation, and may not be causative.  However, I can verify in my practice that intestinal permeability, or so-called “leaky gut” syndrome, is strangely prevalent.  (I make this diagnosis when according to blood food sensitivity tests, patients develop IgG reactions to more than twenty different foods.)  I can also verify the connection between the gut and overall health.

More cause for concern: glyphosate is a chelator, which means it binds to positively charged elements and compounds (such as trace minerals and nutrients) and doesn’t let go.  Plants treated with glyphosate may therefore be deficient nutrients, and the evidence suggests they are primarily low in manganese, zinc, and iron.  Although there are studies on both sides of the fence on this issue, it stands to reason that if true, animals eating nutrient deficient plants will then develop nutrient deficiencies themselves.  At any rate, it is certainly the case that free-range poultry and grass fed meat are substantially higher in essential fatty acids (EFAs) than their agro industry counterparts, and I wonder now whether these issues are related.

So, the conclusion – although the official position is that GM foods are safe, we don’t know their long-term effects, and there’s evidence that they may be harmful.  I can attest to the fact that a cleaner diet nearly always dramatically improves my patients’ health, although whether this is due to higher quality foods in general or the removal of GM foods specifically, I cannot say.

But in general, my rule is that if the jury’s out on safety, avoid it.  

How you avoid GMO foods: 

• Choose organic soy and corn products, OR those that specifically say “non-GMO Project Verified” on the package.
• Avoid canola oil (from rapeseed) and cottonseed oil altogether.  These aren’t healthy for you anyway, so that’s not a big loss.
• Avoid aspartame (derived from a GMO).  This is also bad for you anyway.

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine. To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

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Cellulite is not an illness.  It’s just a pattern of fat distribution.

Underneath your skin, you’ve got a layer of fat.  Everybody does.  (You’d look pretty weird without it.)  Sometimes, the fat layer is distributed evenly, but other times it’s distributed in little pockets, and fibrous bands of tissue connect the skin (dermis) to the muscle that sits beneath that layer of fat.  When the fat bulges through the fibrous bands, it makes the skin on top look lumpy.  It’s like having one of those egg carton mattresses underneath a sheet.

About 85% of women have this kind of fat distribution on their hips, thighs, and buttocks.  (Men can have it too, but men typically have thicker skin so it’s less visible.)  Cellulite shows up around puberty (due to hormonal changes, which is probably why it tends to worsen with pregnancy), and tends to become more pronounced with age (due to the thinning of the dermis and decrease in skin elasticity associated with aging).  It’s genetic.  If your mom has it, you probably will too.

What Makes It Worse:

• Hormones (as mentioned).  But unfortunately that doesn’t mean balancing your hormones will diminish the appearance of cellulite.
• Age (as mentioned), due to changes in the skin.
• Being heavier.  The higher your percentage of body fat, the more fat will get distributed  throughout your body – which means it’ll show up in the layer between your skin and your muscle too.  More fat = more bulge.
• On that note, weight fluctuation.  Most of the time weight loss helps with the appearance of cellulite, but it depends on how your body is predisposed to losing it.  Those women who lose weight too rapidly can sometimes end up with sagging skin, which can worsen the appearance of cellulite.
• Being dehydrated.  Hydrated cells (in the skin) are plumper, which means the underlying bulge will be less visible.  In the same way, dehydrated cells will camouflage the appearance less.
• Poor circulation.  Sedentary individuals, or even those who wear restrictive clothing, can increase the appearance of dimpling.

What Treatments Are Out There: 

• Mechanical stimulation: most of these address the “poor circulation” cause above.  That’s why massage and suction treatments (temporarily) seem to diminish the appearance of cellulite, as do radiofrequency stimulation, thermal stimulation, ultrasound, and electromagnetic stimulation.  Unfortunately these treatments are expensive, several to many treatments are required, and results don’t last.
• Laser stimulation: This one seems to target the fibrous connective tissue, and is often combined with mechanical stimulation to achieve results.  It is also relatively expensive, and results are also short-lived.
• Mesotherapy: a controversial treatment involving injection of fat-dissolving substances under the skin – sometimes these are pharmaceuticals, and sometimes they are natural substances.  Honestly I don’t know enough about this to have an opinion – I’d just say this: do your homework.
• Tanning: this will minimize the appearance of cellulite temporarily… but because it may damage elasticity of the skin in the long run, over time it may actually make the appearance of cellulite worse.
• Creams: Results on these are mostly inconclusive or at best debatable, but it’s agreed that any benefits require continued use.
• With methylxanthines (caffeine): this works by supposedly increasing metabolism locally, decreasing water retention (it’s a diuretic), and improving local circulation.  
• With dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE): these are antioxidants derived from fish.  The argument is that these cause the muscle to contract and become firmer. 
• With retinol: this is supposed to increase collagen production, making skin thicker and thus hiding the cellulite beneath.

What Definitely Works: (No surprises here.)

• Eat a Good Diet: low in processed carbohydrates (which turn to sugar as soon as they hit your saliva, which are then converted to fat for storage), high in vitamins and minerals (which will help to keep the dermis healthy, thick, and elastic, and will also improve your metabolism).
• Drink Plenty of Water: half your body weight in ounces daily, more if you’re active (which you should be.  See #3).  Make sure you’re getting plenty of electrolytes too.
• Get Your Exercise: the best choice is a combination of both cardio and resistance (weights).  The former burns fat and the latter tones muscle.  Not only will toned muscle improve the appearance of cellulite overall, it will burn more calories in a resting state than fat will (by FAR).  Plus, this will help minimize water retention, and increase overall circulation, which will further improve the appearance of cellulite.
• And if you DO decide to try some of the anti-cellulite creams on the market, READ YOUR LABELS.  Make sure none of the no-no ingredients are on the list. And then as long as you’re applying them anyway, you might as well massage them in well – that way you get the benefit of both kinds of treatment.

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine. To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

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In a nutshell, here’s the controversy: your blood maintains its pH regardless of what you eat, according to what we know of physiology.

This is true.  Our bodies are designed to compensate quite well.

But at the same time, certain foods tax the blood buffering system more than others.  This is also true.

So, alkaline diets – are they all hype, or is there any science behind them?

To answer this, here’s a crash course in acid/base chemistry: 

• An acid is any substance that can lose a proton (or a hydrogen ion: H⁺).
• A base (alkaline substance) can accept a proton.  A good example is hydroxide (OH-).
• That’s why water is considered to be “neutral” (pH 7.0) – water is H₂O, and when it dissociates, it forms both H⁺ and OH^-, in a one to one ratio.

Crash course in pH physiology: 

• Our blood naturally maintains a pH between 7.35 and 7.45 – ideally about 7.40, so slightly alkaline.  If the pH drops below 6.8 or rises above 7.8, we’re in big trouble.
• So to prevent either of those extremes, your blood has a buffer system in place to absorb the excess.  (Think of a buffer like the bumper on your car – it keeps the initial impact of an accident from crumpling the whole thing like an accordion.)  This main buffer system involves bicarbonate (HCO₃^-), which can accept a proton (that’s why bicarbonate is considered alkaline).
• Bicarbonate is also stored in your bones, though, complexed with calcium and sodium (Ca+ and Na+).  Phosphate (PO₄^-) can also function as a buffer, and it too is stored in your bones, complexed with calcium.  So in order to release these buffers, your bone minerals have to break down as well.  (Remember that, it’ll come up again.)

How your buffer systems get activated:

Your tissues use oxygen to convert chemical energy (glucose) into mechanical energy.  Ever had your muscles burn after a particular intense workout?  That means your muscles created lactic acid (which increases H⁺ in the tissue, along with CO₂ in exchange for oxygen).

Some foods also have an acidic effect on the body, which is what this article is all about.  Also – as your tissues release protons to the blood stream, they have to make an exchange, for electrolytes like sodium and potassium (Na⁺ and K⁺).  So these are inversely related.  (My guess is, that is why foods high in electrolytes have a more alkaline effect on the body – but I don’t know this for sure.)

Where buffering happens:

Ultimately your kidneys are responsible for removing the excess proton buildup from your blood and reabsorbing bicarbonate ions.  (Because the buck stops with your kidneys, too, an acidic diet is correlated with a higher incidence of kidney stones.)

Your lungs can also get rid of excess acid through exhaling CO₂ (which functions as an acid in the blood, since as CO₂ goes up, bicarbonate goes down).

Finally, your bones can bear up to 40% of the burden of an acute acid load on the blood, leading to a breakdown of the minerals in the bone as well.  Even a week of an acidic diet is enough to decrease concentration of bone minerals from the surface of the bones.

So which foods are acidic, and which are alkaline?

Foods with an acidic effect on the body buffering systems include beef, ice cream, canned fruits, peanuts, bacon, tuna, corn, sugar, vinegar, corn syrup, cereals, mustard, mayo, corn tortillas, milk, sardines, soft drinks, artificial sweeteners, and ketchup.

(I’m not against the unprocessed things on this list – just make sure your diet doesn’t consist of nothing but!)

Foods with an alkalinizing effect include alfalfa, celery, barley grass, peppers, beet greens, broccoli, cabbage, mustard greens, chard greens, collard greens, chlorella, onions, cucumber, spinach, spirulina, garlic, green beans, dandelions, lettuce, kohlrabi, kale, pumpkin, wheat grass, sprouts, watercress, and wild greens.

So what should you do with this information?

First, be thankful for your blood buffering systems.  They’re pretty neat, and you’d die without them (no matter how you eat).

Also, to keep from overtaxing them and suffering long-term effects,

1. Eat your vegetables, especially the green ones.  
2. Avoid your white carbs, sugars, sodas, and processed foods.  
3. Exercise – this will activate your lungs’ buffering system, oxygenating your body and releasing excess CO₂.

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Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine.  To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

Contrary to popular belief – fat is not all bad.  

You need fat in your diet.  For one thing, your brain is almost entirely made of fat, as are the sheaths around your nerve cells.  Fat protects your internal organs, it’s a great energy source, and it’s necessary to get your fat soluble vitamins (A, E, D, and K).  It’s necessary for healthy cell membranes, so that good stuff (nutrients, oxygen, cell signals) can get in and bad stuff (waste) can get out.

Without enough fat in their diets, patients usually feel fatigued, depressed, and more prone to illness (many fats are highly antimicrobial).

Unfortunately, the “fat free” craze has led to near elimination of good fats primarily, replacing it with sugar and “bad fats.”  Here’s how to tell the difference.

Unhealthy Fats

1) Trans fats, aka Partially Hydrogenated Oils.  Both of these are terms from chemistry, describing both the number and the orientation of hydrogens on the carbon backbone of the fats.  Trans fats start out as unsaturated vegetable oils (see #2), but then they’re thrown in a metal vat, with nickel, pressure, and hydrogen ions (H+).  The unsaturated oil ends up “partially saturated” with hydrogen atoms, and by the time the process is over, there are no nutrients or antioxidants left.

• Found in: margarine, shortening, processed and fried foods of all kinds.
• Reason they’re bad: Highly associated with most Western diseases (including cancer and heart disease), they increase the “bad” cholesterol (LDL), lower “good” cholesterol (HDL), interfere with healthy cell membrane function (decreasing cell detoxification and increasing insulin resistance), and lower immune system functioning.

2) Polyunsaturated vegetable oils.  These are commonly used in processed and fast foods (at which point they become trans fats.)

• Found in: canola oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, safflower and sunflower oil.
• Reason they’re bad: they are loaded with omega 6 fatty acids, which are necessary in your diet in moderation, but too many O6′s leads to chronic inflammation and high cholesterol.

Healthy Fats

1) Saturated Fats (believe it or not!).  These get a bad rap because too much saturated fat necessarily means too few essential fatty acids (see #3), which leads to inflammation.  But if you eat them in moderation, you reap the benefits (below), and your body can convert the excess to EFAs if it needs them.

• Found in: coconut oil, avocados, nuts, butter, ghee, palm oil, animal fats (grass fed and/or free range!) and eggs (free range!).
• Reason they’re good: These make up 50% of your cell membranes (and healthy cell membranes means good stuff can get in, and bad stuff can get out).  They are the preferred food for your heart, antimicrobial, support immune function, are necessary for your blood to clot and for your lungs to work properly, are easily absorbed for quick energy, and are necessary for infant brain development.

2) Monounsaturated Fats: make sure it’s “organic” and “extra virgin” – this means it’s unprocessed, and therefore still high in antioxidants.

• Found in: famously, olive oil.
• Reason they’re good: lowers inflammatory omega 6, lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, and maintains healthy nerve function.

3) Polyunsaturated Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs): These do everything!  And it’s VERY likely you’re not getting enough of them, if you’re eating a Standard American Diet.

• Found in: veggie oils (such as flax seed and hemp seed), nut oils (macadamia, peanut), plant oils (pumpkin seed, grape seed, sesame, rice bran, borage, black currant, evening primrose), grass fed meat and dairy, and fish or marine oils.
• Reason they’re good: these are anti-inflammatory, support the mucus lining in your stomach, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, improve insulin sensitivity, decrease allergic responses, keep cell walls healthy, and are also necessary for brain development.

One last thing…

Oils For Cooking: 

Some fats go rancid with heat (forming free radicals), and some are relatively stable.  These are the ones you should have on hand, depending on the purpose:

• For high heat cooking, use animal fats, butter or ghee, coconut oil, or palm oil.
• For light cooking, use olive oil, avocado oil, macadamia nut, peanut, sesame, or rice bran oil.
• For dressings: use flax, grape seed, hemp, or pumpkin oils.

The take-home message: EAT FATS!  

(But eat those found in whole foods, NOT in fast or processed foods.)

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Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine.  To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

Halloween is upon us.  It means lots of excitement, celebration, dressing up… and of course, massive amounts of candy.

While I’m not a huge fan of large quantities of sugar, I have to admit that I have great memories of trick-or-treating when I was a kid.  I believe very firmly in balance - social activities and fond childhood memories are important.

At the same time, Halloween is hardly the only candy- and dessert-filled holiday of the year.  These days, occasional treats are hardly “occasional.”  In addition to Halloween, there’s Easter.  There’s grandparent visits (what grandparent doesn’t “spoil” his or her grandkids)?  There’s Christmas and Thanksgiving, of course.  There’s Valentine’s Day.  There’s your child’s birthday (and the birthdays of all of their friends).  There’s almost every organized function your kids may attend, such as sports team games and practices, Sunday school treats, and spending time at their friends’ houses where sugary snacks are not treats so much as dietary staples.

…You get the idea.  Fill in your own list.

So how do you allow your child to participate and indulge without overindulging, and also without feeling “gypped” compared to his or her classmates and friends?

I came across two terrific suggestions from one of my colleagues, Dr Keri Marshall (see here for the original article).

The first thing to do is to separate those acceptable treats from the unacceptable.  Relatively speaking, candy you want to avoid contains chemicals in high concentrations – such as high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and artificial colors and flavors.  (Check out this article on food additives and the hazards they represent.)  Once again – most of our bodies can handle the occasional health hazard.  But remember, Halloween is hardly the only occasion of the year when your child will be exposed to such chemicals, and it’s one of the few you may be able to control!

My “acceptable” list of treats includes chocolate (which does contain powerful antioxidants, found in higher concentrations in dark chocolate than in milk chocolate), candy made with real sugar (if you must have it, have the real stuff), and of course things like pretzels, dried fruit, granola bars and the like.

What to do with the unacceptable candy, then?  Here’s a few of Dr Marshall’s great ideas:

• The first is “The Switch Witch,” another fairy-tale creature to join the ranks of the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and Santa Claus.  Dr. Marshall writes, “When you set out a bowl of candy at night, while the children are sleeping, the Switch Witch comes and swaps out the candy and leaves behind a small present. This way the child does not feel totally ripped off and still has a small bowl of healthier options to choose from over the next few weeks.”
• The second idea is to set aside the “unacceptable” candies until December, when you can use them to help your child decorate a gingerbread house (and in that case, the more brightly colored, the better!)  “Sweet Tarts make great roof shingles. Artificial colored dipping powders make great skating rinks (blue) and grass (green). Nerds make great cobblestone pathways,” writes Dr Marshall.

The moral of the story – be creative!  It is possible for your kids to have fun, participate in Halloween, and still learn to make healthier choices.

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Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine.  To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

Addictions come in all shapes and sizes.

Usually we think addictions can only apply to substances, like drugs or alcohol.  But you can also be addicted to behaviors (like gambling, shopping, sex, work, or eating).  Turns out that the chemical response in the brain is much the same.

What does addiction do to the brain?

Addiction of any sort targets the “pleasure center” of the brain (otherwise known as the limbic system).  Most addictions mimic, stimulate the release of, or block the breakdown of the “pleasure and reward” neurotransmitter (signal in the brain), called dopamine.

This study found that chocolate and sugar produce chemicals in the brain called enkephalins, which work much like opiates (including heroin, morphine, and oxycontin) – that is, they stimulate the release of dopamine.

Another study found that patients who have undergone gastric bypass surgeries are at increased risk for developing substance abuse disorders after the fact – suggesting that in some sense, the “root cause” (the addictive tendency) has not been addressed.  These patients still seek the same dopamine release, just via a different medium.

Why would our bodies respond to food in this way?  

One theory is that we’re programmed for survival.  Historically starvation was a real possibility, and so it makes sense that high-protein and high-fat foods would taste better  to us (i.e. lead to greater pleasure, therefore greater dopamine release) than those of lower caloric content.  But these foods didn’t used to be so readily available, as we well know.

So how do you deal with food addictions?

My favorite technique is to go cold turkey for a month from the food you crave.  (I know, I know — calm down and hear me out.)  Your taste buds reset after about that length of time, and for that reason, cold turkey is ultimately a lot easier than trying to wean yourself off.  You may still enjoy the same foods afterwards, but the cycle will be broken.  And for some people, this will be enough.

But what if the food addiction really indicates a deeper emotional issue?

In that case, you will need to address the root cause, of course.  Here’s a few recommendations to get you going:

• Get some support.  Have a good friend or a counselor who can walk through the process with you.
• Develop a practice of mindfulness (deep breathing, meditation, yoga, etc).  This will help you to slow down and get in touch with what’s really going on inside.
• Keep a food and feeling journal.  This will help you to correlate the foods you crave with the emotions you feel at the time.
• Once you see this connection clearly, begin to ask yourself the hard questions.  Where are those emotions coming from?  What would need to happen in order to address them, rather than just mask them?
• Cultivate a practice of gratitude for your food.  Give thanks for it.  Stop and appreciate it before eating.  Chew it slowly.  Not only will this teach you to tune in and learn to recognize when you feel full, but gratitude (in general!) will also help to shift your focus from what you desire to what you already have.
• Accept yourself right now, exactly as you are.  Self-condemnation is counterproductive.  In order to move forward, you need to give yourself positive rather than negative encouragement.

A highly recommended resource: “Create the Body that Your Soul Desires,” by Dr Karen Wolfe and Deborah Kern.

Like DrLauren Deville on Facebook to receive daily nutritional tips on your newsfeed!

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine.  To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.